


bless me, achoo!

by icedmatchalatte



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: ? - Freeform, Allergies, Alternate Universe - High School, Getting Together, M/M, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, it’s spring and they hate it, some head over heeling at first sight
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:27:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 27,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21725248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icedmatchalatte/pseuds/icedmatchalatte
Summary: Jeno is allergic to Jaemin. That’s the only possible explanation to why his face is turning as red as a beet and his heart won’t stop pounding and he’s pretty sure his skin is itching after only sharing a drink with this boy he just met.
Relationships: Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Comments: 26
Kudos: 75





	1. Chapter 1

Jeno dabbed the hem of his sweater on his forehead for the second time in less than a minute. Spring had come early, though clearly not for his school’s administration. A few days before Donghyuck had tried to slip into the classroom wearing his summer uniform, and all hell was unleashed in the form of an uncharacteristically pissed off class president. Jeno suspected their first period teacher sending both Donghyuck and the class president to the principal — he still wasn’t sure how his best friend had it in him to start a fight at seven in the morning — had more to do with the fact that Donghyuck had turned his polo shirt into a crop top, and less to do with the class president using some rather colorful choice words and gestures to let Donghyuck know exactly what he had done wrong. 

With the incident, though, hall monitors and first period teachers had been _strongly advised_ to make sure that all students were still correctly wearing their winter uniforms, and to also let them know the principal’s office was stocked with extra navy blue sweaters and detention cards, in case they weren’t. So as much as Jeno would like to try pulling a Donghyuck and sneak in wearing his summer uniform too, he wasn’t about to risk losing a precious Friday afternoon because of some annoying morning sweat. Not that he’d customized any piece of his uniform like Donghyuck — Jeno knew his mom would probably make him sew a new one from scratch if he did — but right now he really wished for one extra pair of scissors and two less woolen sleeves. And if Jeno initially thought his assigned seat by the window would be a blessing for the chance of catching some well deserved cool breeze, the 11AM sun currently burning the tip of his left ear made it anything but. 

“Gosh I’m really gonna pass out,” Renjun murmured from the seat behind him, using an exercise sheet to fan himself. 

“Hey,” Jeno murmured back “Wanna point that to my head for a bit?”

“Use your own papers, lazy ass,” but from the slight puff of air on Jeno’s neck, Renjun had given in. “Even Mr. Byun’s using his, he’s not gonna say anything if he sees you doing it too.” And sure enough, their math teacher was fanning himself with what Jeno thought was the attendance sheet while putting up homework equations on the board. Jeno wrinkled his nose. 

“Dude, imagine having to wear a whole suit and tie like that, though.”

“I still think we have it worse. The AC in the teachers’ lounge is probably on already. While this,” Renjun leaned over his desk and stuck his sweater-covered forearm next to Jeno, fingertips almost reaching Jeno’s stack of blue pens — he couldn’t really call it a pencil-case “makes our skin reach probably about two hundred degrees. Give or take.”

Jeno snorted. “It’s just a little humid,” which made Eunbin, to Jeno’s right, clearly listening to their conversation, look at him as if he’d lost his mind. 

“Are you kidding?” her whisper was almost a hiss “I dare you to find someone in this floor who isn’t about to die a very slow death drowning in a pool of their own sweat.” Jeno made a face, turning his attention back to the white board in a pointless attempt to rid himself of the mental image. 

“First of all, ew,” came Renjun’s answer “but, she’s right. If spring is like this already, summer’s gonna be hell, _especially_ for you.” And Jeno felt that, he really did. Renjun unfortunately knew all about his allergies, and how unusually warm and cold weeks triggered them. Though they had started as some sensitivity to spring pollen when he was young, Jeno’s body had since developed a general hatred for any seasonal changes, no discrimination. 

Which, considering the current weather, for the past three days Jeno felt like he had somehow managed to cheat his own body into thinking it was still winter. No string of sneezes, no itchy, watery eyes, no carrying around a water bottle and a box of Claritin just yet. But Renjun’s comment got him thinking how once it was actually summer, Jeno probably wouldn’t even be able to keep his fan on at night, much less his window if he didn’t want to wake the entire neighborhood with sneezes. 

Suddenly summer break didn’t seem all that appealing. 

Maybe it was some weird placebo effect after all, and as long as Jeno kept wearing his winter uniform, his body wouldn’t think it was time yet for seasonal allergies. Maybe then he would be able to skip his unfortunate allergic reactions this semester, not only for his own sake, but also for his parents’ — his dad would sometimes sleep downstairs when Jeno couldn’t stop sneezing at night — and for Donghyuck’s — who clung to him way too much on a regular basis, but got grossed out and kept some distance when Jeno’s rhinitis was acting up — and for his teachers’ too — who always gave him a look of pity and asked if he needed to be excused for some minutes whenever the sneezes interrupted lessons. Maybe he should just keep sweating through his winter uniform with no complaints, after all. 

“I can’t believe this shit,” Donghyuck whined as he dropped a transparent bag full of chocolate and strawberry pastries on the table. “Sitting with the underclassmen? Really?” 

“You’re welcome to find a table outside,” Chenle said with a bright smile, reaching for the bag “under the sun, if mingling with ‘the underclassmen’ is beneath you.” Donghyuck slapped Chenle’s hand away from the pastries and fixed Jeno with a pleading look, to which he simply shrugged. 

“Every other table inside was taken,” he said around a mouthful of roasted potatoes “You know nobody is really going outside today, only the really late ones that have nowhere else to sit.”

“Like you,” Chenle added, smile still bright.

“Can you like, talk when you have no food in your mouth? I think a piece of potato just landed on my rice,” Jisung complained, carefully separating with his fork what was clean rice from the probable potato-contaminated rice. Donghyuck made a face and plopped down next to Jeno, promptly stealing a salted cracker from Chenle’s tray. 

“Just you wait until Renjun gets here, then you’re gonna know.” Jeno swallowed before speaking this time, measuring his words carefully while Donghyuck was too busy with his lunch. 

“He’s sitting somewhere else today,” and he really didn’t want to, but his gaze still flitted to where Renjun was sitting, next to the cafeteria’s exit. It took a whole two seconds for Donghyuck to start positively vibrating by his side, both Chenle and Jisung suddenly very interested in their own food, avoiding his eyes. 

“What the fuck,” Donghyuck started with a growl “is Renjun doing fraternizing with the enemy?”

“He said something about networking, and keeping his records clean.” Jisung piped up, ignoring Jeno’s glare. 

“A traitor,” he gasped “I let a traitor inside my home!” 

“Hyuck, I really don’t think the class president is our enemy. He even shared some of his notes with me this morning.” 

“You don’t see what he’s doing, he’s trying to win over all my friends, he’s trying to leave me alone, he’s—”

“Who?” Jisung turned around, looking for the table Renjun was at. “Mark Lee? I think he’s nice. Since Yeojin became class president she’s always saying good things about him. But I also think she just became class president to be in the student council with him. So might be a bit biased.” Donghyuck was fuming. 

“You see this?!” he whisper-shouted to Jeno, pointing accusingly to Jisung. Jeno rolled his eyes and got another mouthful of roasted potatoes. “He’s preying on a ten year old. He’s sick in the head, I’m telling you—” 

“Yeojin is fifteen—”

“—shut up Jisung, I’m saying he’s, he’s such a creep, like why was he so invested in my uniform that day?!”

“Hyuck, you cut your shirt, I don’t know, a whole palm over your bellybutton. Not to play the devil’s advocate here, but you were breaking at least seven school rules with that.” 

“He didn’t need to be so stingy about it. Did you even hear the names he called me when I tried to tell him why we shouldn’t be wearing winter uniforms anymore?” Jeno sighed, watching Donghyuck slowly rip apart a perfectly good piece of chocolate pastry. 

“You were graphically insulting his gene pool for making him unable to sense temperature changes, and you threatened to choke him with the remaining fabric of your crop top.” Chenle perked up at that.

“Oh, I remember that! Mr. Park was late to our first class because Ms. Kang called him to take Hyuck and Mark to the principal. He was super excited and spent half of the class time talking about what happened and how we would probably start wearing summer uniforms earlier because of all that commotion,” Chenle locked eyes with Donghyuck and gulped audibly “I guess he was wrong?” he finished in a small voice. A short tense silence followed, broken only by Jisung’s fork scraping the bottom of his tray. Donghyuck then suddenly sighed and dropped his head on top of the table. 

“The principal said we really were only allowed to change uniforms after the equinox, whenever that is.” Donghyuck’s words were muffled from how his cheek was pressed against the table, but the pain in his voice was very much clear. Jeno pulled up his phone to Google it. 

“Are you for real?” he locked his phone, and if Jeno put it back on the table with a bit too much force, nobody said anything. “ _Three_ more weeks? Does he actually want us all to die?” the other three boys let out a collective groan. More silence. Chenle cleared his throat. 

“Maybe is just this week that’s super warm? We should be focusing on the good things that come with this weather instead.” 

Jisung wasn’t convinced. “Like what?” 

“Like.. smoothies after class? If you guys are up for it? I gotta be home by six today, but it’s enough time right?” another groan, this time from Donghyuck only. 

“If I’m lucky I’ll be _leaving_ at six from here today,” and when no one said anything, Donghyuck raised his head “Last day of detention.” he clarified. Still no one said anything. Giving up, Donghyuck went back to resting his head on the cool metal of their lunch table. Jeno finished the strawberry pastries, his fingers sticky with melted jam. 

**_try not to miss me too much today_ **

Jeno snorted at Donghyuck’s message, sliding on the bus seat next to Renjun. 

_i won’t_

_i’m bringing injun and the underclassmen with me for smoothies_

_/you/ try not to miss me_

The response came a few seconds later, Jeno too preoccupied with figuring out the best way to sit so the underside of his jeans could be ventilated, and not stick to his skin when getting up. 

**_et tu brute?_ **

**_worry not i’m not alone in the fifth circle of hell so watch me replace both of you_ **

**_i need me some new best friends anyways_ **

Renjun poked Jisung’s shoulder on the seat in front of them, asking him to open the window. Chenle watched a few seconds of struggling before leaning over to help. Jeno wondered if he should ask whether Donghyuck was implying he’d become best friends with class president Mark Lee, since he knew both had detention at the same time today, but decided against it, for personal safety reasons. After all, Donghyuck was still his next door neighbor, and Jeno did sleep with his bedroom door unlocked. 

_have fun then :D_

And locked his phone with a smile after reading a last message from Donghyuck, before he knew the other had to turn off his phone and put it in a basket by the teacher’s desk. 

**_hope you choke on that smoothie_ **

It was four in the afternoon on Thursday, but for all Jeno felt like, it might as well be Sunday. He and Renjun were spread out on the cold marbled floor of his living room, the decorative fan Jeno’s mother got from some garage sale lazily spinning over them. They had moved both heavy wingbacks and the glass coffee table out of the way so they could lie perfectly under the barely working fan. Unsticking his arm from the floor every once in a while, Jeno watched the condensation tracing the outline of his hand, and slowly ran his fingers over it, drawing random patterns until it all disappeared. All windows were open, and Jeno wasn’t sure if this helped or made the humidity even worse. At the side of his head, Renjun’s bare feet twitched slightly, but he was suspiciously quiet, so Jeno suspected his friend had dozed off for a bit. Turning his head away from Renjun’s feet and into a more comfortable position, or as comfortable as it could be lying on stone, Jeno hummed at the small relief of the new patch of cold under his cheek. 

He had probably drifted off not much later than Renjun, because he was suddenly woken up by Donghyuck throwing the front door open. 

“Look who decided to grace us with his presence.” Jeno managed to croak out.

“Oh wow, what a pathetic sight.” Donghyuck clicked his tongue from behind Jeno’s couch, the sound of plastic bags rustling in his hands. 

Renjun grumbled, also awake now. “Go fuck yourself. Let us die alone in peace,” Donghyuck tsk-ed once more, fetching something from the plastic bags. “Ow, what the—” Jeno saw from the corner of his eye a green packet land on Renjun’s face, and not a second later, something positively freezing landed on Jeno’s bare stomach. 

“That’s not something very nice to say to someone who just brought you Melona ice pops now, is it?” Donghyuck crumpled the empty plastic bag and left it on Jeno’s couch, opening a yellow packet himself and promptly biting down on it. Renjun sighed in relief, holding the ice pop at eye level, appreciating the packet for a few seconds. 

“Donghyuck, I literally love you. Please marry me.”

“Now that’s more like it,” and then “Earth to Jeno? Are you not gonna eat yours?” 

He thought about it for a few seconds “I think I might leave it on my belly until it melts and just drink it then. It feels really good right now.”

“You’re so gross.” And Jeno didn’t really need to see Donghyuck’s face to know his expression saying that.

“What brings you here anyway?” Jeno gave in and picked the ice pop, sitting up. “Don’t think I’ve seen you outside class since what, last week?” 

“He’s too busy with his new friend.” Renjun teased, still flat on the floor but positively inhaling his Melona. Donghyuck stuck his tongue out to him, adjusting himself on the couch. 

“You’re just jealous I can actually make friends and you’re a social reject.”

“Me? You’re talking to _me_? As in, me who literally befriended the class president and his whole group of friends just a few days ago, me?” 

“Please, look at yourself. You thinking being friends with the class president is something really tells me more than I need to know about you.” And if Jeno eyes were seeing things right, Donghyuck was.. sulking?

“Okay but I literally said the class president _and_ all of his friends, or did you miss that?” Renjun sat up. 

Donghyuck rolled his eyes. “Literally the same thing. Anyone close to Mark Lee is a loser by association.”

Renjun was about to physically launch himself onto Donghyuck when Jeno decided it was really more trouble than its worth and cleared his throat. “So, why exactly did you go M.I.A. on us this whole week?” 

“I usually can’t stay behind with him after school so we’ve been eating lunch together.” Jeno raised an eyebrow when Donghyuck offered nothing more. 

“Why, be more cryptic won’t you.” Jeno and Donghyuck had a little stare off, Jeno knowing his friend preened under attention and was just waiting for him and Renjun to ask all about this mysterious new friend of his, and Donghyuck knowing Jeno wasn’t willingly going to ask anything else just to piss him off. Donghyuck broke the eye contact first, and threw himself back on the couch, lazily biting the ice pop. 

“Okay, okay. So, last Friday, when I had detention? Thank heavens Mark Lee decided to sit right in the first row, so I could sit at the very last and put all that available space between us. Anyway. In comes a couple more kids from our year — like, remember Chaewon with the shoe glue incident? So yeah, she was there too, and I’m telling you, literally everyone wants to sit as far away from Mark Lee as possible—”

“Or— here’s a groundbreaking idea— just far from the teacher?”

“—and so we all sit at the back and it’s fine to whisper you know, since Mr. Kim is like, super focused on helping Mark Lee with his homework or something. And by my side sits this kid I swear to god I’ve only seen in a few P.E. classes before, and he’s just so funny. I’m talking literally cracking me up the whole time. Our sense of humor is really similar.”

“This can’t really be good.”

“So we kinda clicked and he invited me to hang out during lunch. And I say during lunch because the kid gives zero fucks to the dress code and he’s just in perpetual detention so we can’t really hang out after school.” 

Jeno, licking the stick of his Melona bar while it still retained some of the cold, glanced towards Renjun, glad to see he wasn’t the only one who thought the whole thing was utterly ridiculous. 

“So, what? Your new best friend is a problem child? Is this part of your twisted plan to get the class president’s attention?” Jeno put the stick back into the orange packet, now all warm and disgusting. Things didn’t last too long being cool in this weather. 

The color that crept on Donghyuck’s neck and cheeks, as well as the top of his visible ear, had nothing to do with how warm and humid the day was, though. He snapped his Melona stick in half, and avoided making eye contact with Jeno, weakly kicking Renjun’s shaking back, resting on the couch. Renjun just folded his legs, leaning away from Donghyuck, and kept trying to suppress his laughter. 

“He’s not my best friend. That’s nonsense,” an inhale “And it has nothing to do with Mark Lee. Not everything revolves around him, much to his disappointment. The kid’s just really entertaining, so I like him. And I think if y’all gave him the chance, you’d like him too.” 

Renjun huffed and leaned back on the couch, fixing the front of his shirt, which now sported a dark horizontal line of sweat in the middle. “I don’t really wanna condone you hanging out with a kid you only met because of detention. It literally gives me a headache thinking about what could possibly come out of this friendship.” Donghyuck’s face contorted, and Jeno laughed. 

“Quit sounding like a mom, Injun.”

“Well, it’s true,” he shrugged. “And trust when I say Mark will be very invested if Hyuck follows on this whatever kid’s footsteps, it can’t lead to good stuff.” Renjun got up, trying to open the window by the door just a little bit wider. He turned his face back to the general direction of Jeno and Donghyuck. “What’s his name anyway?” and that was the million dollar question. Donghyuck, quickly recovering himself from the jabs at his obsession with the class president, untangled the plastic bag by his side and started stuffing it with the remains of their Melona bars. Jeno passed him his empty packet silently, gingerly glancing up at Donghyuck, uncharacteristically focused. His friend smiled. 

“Na Jaemin.”

The Great Countdown, Renjun had named it, where someone in their class would write a comically big number on the white board just before class started, indicating the number of days left until they could switch up to summer uniforms. Last to arrive, Jeno picked up a red marker and drew a large number 13 with a sad sunglass-wearing sun on the corner, just for good measure. Officially less than two weeks now. 

If any other day, the sight of Jeno’s desk bathed in sunlight, metal structure glistening prettily, would have been enough to lift his mood for the rest of the period, but right now Jeno felt like turning 180° and exiting right through the door he just came in. 

“Jeno Lee, please go back to your seat.” Mr. Yoo said from the door, effectively shutting down Jeno’s plans of skipping class. He felt at least a bit comforted by the fact that his first period history teacher’s walk towards the center of the room looked just as miserable as Jeno’s towards his own scorching desk. For the first time in a long while, the symphony of groans and complaints from across the classroom had nothing to do with the fact that it was seven in the morning of a Monday, but instead because of the fact that still no ACs besides the one in the teachers’ lounge and the cafeteria were working yet. 

Jeno’s rhinitis was slightly thankful. 

The rest of his body and mind, however, were not. 

“You look disgusting.” Donghyuck greeted him, sitting on the empty desk in front of Jeno. 

“Gee, way to brighten someone’s day.” Though it wasn’t really like Jeno thought the hair plastered to the sweat on his forehead looked pretty, specially after running his hand through it one too many times trying to air it out, or trying to hold his bangs up with a hair clip borrowed from Eunbin sometime during the third period. 

“Cheer up, buttercup, lunch is less than an hour away,” Jeno got two slight taps on his ear before trying to get away from Donghyuck’s reach. “And I’m here to save you from having to eat with the underclassmen, or the class president. Or even worse,” he leaned closer, stage whispering “the class president _and_ Renjun.”

From behind them, Renjun grumbled some insults at Donghyuck for that, but didn’t put his phone down to actually participate in the conversation. Jeno only raised an eyebrow, amused, which was enough encouragement for Donghyuck to continue. “I’m here to formally invite you to hang out with me and detention kid today. He’s bringing someone from his class called Yangyang, so I just think it’s fair that I bring someone along as well.”

“Why, I didn’t know I needed a formal invitation to sit down at lunch with one of my best friends.” Jeno watched Donghyuck shrug from the corner of his eye, focusing on organizing his books for the next class. “I also don’t think he’d appreciate you calling him detention kid, but that’s just a thought.”

“Does that mean you’re in? I don’t want Jaemin to think I actually lied about having friends, and Renjun is not cool enough for me to introduce.” And at that Jeno heard a phone being dropped on a desk, and duck out of the way just as Renjun launched himself on Donghyuck, hands stretched out, trying to reach for his neck. 

“Assault! This is assault!” Donghyuck squealed, laughing. 

“I’m gonna fucking show you what assault is, you little—”

“Can you please,” Jeno heaved himself back up, trying to get between both of them “please kill each other in the fall maybe? Right now I really don’t need two extra bodies bringing more body heat to my desk.” 

“Asshole.” Renjun murmured to Donghyuck, but sat back down. 

“Keep it up and you might actually earn an introduction to Jaemin,” Donghyuck straightened the sleeves of his uniform’s cardigan, and looked down to check whether any button was missing, a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek. “Anyway Jeno, what do you say? Lunch?” 

And Jeno wasn’t superstitious, he really wasn’t. The churn at the bottom of his stomach might have been anything, but he’d gotten himself into enough awkward situations ignoring his gut feeling that he actively started trusting it more. Right now his discomfort might have been from the fact that Renjun’s and Donghyuck’s bickering made him move around more than strictly necessary in this temperature, and his body wasn’t happy with that. Might have been from the fact that he couldn’t finish breakfast that morning, so he was feeling just a bit weaker, especially so close to lunch. Hell, it might have even been from their biology class that just ended, and Jeno had never been too fond of looking at a slideshows about bacterial diseases in small animals. But for some reason, Jeno’s insides were twisting thinking about saying ‘yes’ to Donghyuck’s lunch proposal. 

Jeno wasn’t one for social anxiety, either. He befriended people without even noticing, and talked to strangers easily enough, and that’s why he was always on phone-and-door duty when he and his friends ordered food. Talking and spending time with people was just the same to Jeno whether he knew them or not, and it was by no means a chore. But when he looked at Donghyuck’s expectant smile, and thought about meeting his new friends, an alarm went off in his head. 

“I, uh, I’ll let you know.” He watched Donghyuck jump off the desk, clapping his hands triumphantly. Jeno himself knew that whenever he gave such a vague answer, it more often than not — read, always — meant yes. He just really couldn’t be bothered to say no, and besides, it took way too much energy to turn someone down. It wasn’t the case this time. 

“See you at lunch then.” And Jeno imperceptibly clenched his jaw, avoiding eye contact. He didn’t think he’d be seeing Donghyuck, or his new friends, at all during lunch. 

“Hey, Jeno. Are you avoiding me?”

The question was innocent enough, with Donghyuck’s eyes trained on the TV of his bedroom. He and Jeno were sitting on the floor, towels around their necks, but the dampness on their foreheads had for once nothing to do with the unusually hot almost-spring weather. After all, Donghyuck’s house had a central air conditioning system, which Jeno unironically thought was just so _cool_ , but that fire ramen could really take down even the toughest soldier. 

Regardless, Jeno choked a little. 

“I’m what?” he took a second to dab the towel on his nose bridge “You realize I’m currently sitting right next to you? Inside your house?” to which Donghyuck rolled his eyes, and put his metal chopsticks down. 

“You know what I mean. At school,” and then looked at Jeno from the corner of his eye, “Is it something to do with me now hanging out with other people from our year?” 

Jeno was speechless. Carefully taking another mouthful of ramen, he pondered how to best answer this — if there was any good way to answer at all. 

See, what Jeno hadn’t been able to predict, is just how bad he truly is at communicating sometimes. If all it took that Monday morning three days ago was to tell Donghyuck a solid ‘hey man, sorry but no can do, I’m also not sure why, please don’t ask, let’s hang out some other time?’ He ended up actually dipping mid-conversation when Donghyuck suddenly waved down the hallway a very enthusiastic ‘Jaemin you slow bastard, pick up your goddamn pace or we’re not getting a fucking table!’

It was that gut feeling, he’d argue. That, and the fact that Donghyuck’s vocabulary around his new friend was almost as colorful as when he was around the class president. 

And, oh, the weird chill that went down his spine at the split second eye contact he made with a dude that had a glaring streak of blue hair. 

He knew instantly that said guy was Na Jaemin. Less because of the fact that he was wearing a plain white t-shirt that not only was not part of their winter uniform, but in fact not part of their uniform at all, and more because of the thousand watt smile he shined in their direction upon hearing the words ‘slow bastard’ from Donghyuck. But seriously, was it even normal to have that many teeth?

So the most dignified thing Jeno could do in that situation, which his bad gut feeling and spine chill asked for, was of course to book it down the hallway, cutting through lines of students heading towards the cafeteria, and hide in the nearest bathroom. And it was there (in the middle stall, because using the last at lunch time would just seem too suspicious) sitting on the closed toilet lid, that Jeno decided he’d eat lunch alone at one of the art classrooms, because what the fuck had just happened. 

What he had later decided then, elbows resting on a paint stained table, unwrapping an egg salad sandwich delivered by Chenle (after a couple of weird texts and a very concerned look), was that he’d pretend the past twenty minutes of his life had never happened. The plan was to go back to fifth period, crack a joke at his own expense so Donghyuck wouldn’t question the sudden disappearance, possibly ask him to introduce Na Jaemin and this Yangyang guy later so he could apologize for taking an impromptu raincheck for lunch, and move on. 

What had actually happened later though, was that he went back to fifth period, positively avoided the third seat of the second row of his class (and thus, Donghyuck’s questioning eyes), and moved on. What he also did was ignore the string of messages left by his best friend that were all slight variations of ‘Jeno, what the fuck was that,’ and ‘Jeno, where the fuck are you,’ and _then_ moved on. 

Another slight miscalculation on his part was just what that whole moving on concept meant. To Jeno, it ended up including an arrangement of the most ridiculous actions he’d ever taken up to this junior year of his primary education career. Consisting of, but not limited to: pretending his own best friend was something akin to a mute hologram during school hours; taking to making a quick exit of the classroom in-between all period breaks to hide in the bathroom (see: pretending best friend is a mute hologram, but one that you should also irrationally fear); acting generally jumpy upon spotting a head of blonde hair — with or without blue streaks — anywhere within school grounds; and that one time Na Jaemin stopped by to have a quick chat with Donghyuck that made Jeno straight up bolt out of the classroom through the back door (and hide in the bathroom’s middle stall until the bell for the next period rang). 

It was, for a lack of proper words, stupid, nonsensical, and tiring. Particularly tiring because Jeno tiptoed around the school perimeter wearing the two layers of their winter school uniform, and that wasn’t fun at all. 

But that also meant Jeno felt extremely embarrassed to try explaining why he was acting like that to both Renjun (who had on Wednesday morning put a pamphlet of the school’s counseling office on his desk) and to Donghyuck (who he’d run from like the plague during school hours, only to promptly follow him home to play video games and only leave for his own house around dinner time). Left him actually wondering how Donghyuck took three whole days to ask what was wrong. 

Jeno cleared his throat. 

“I don’t— there’s nothing wrong, hanging out with different people. You know I never minded that,” Donghyuck nodded, silently waiting for Jeno to elaborate. “It’s just, that day you asked for me to come with for lunch? I think I wasn’t feeling well. I don’t know, I didn’t tell you no, but then I just left, and thought you’d be upset because I bolted without saying anything, and that it happened in front of your new friend, and then I just thought he’d think I was weird, so I thought avoiding him would make him forget about it, but now he’s always around you, so I— I don’t know. I’m stupid. Sorry. I really don’t know.”

Donghyuck kept looking at Jeno, who meekly scratched the back of his neck at the lack of response. And then, “So you’re saying you avoided me for almost a week in school because you ditched lunch with new people I care about for not feeling well, and was too embarrassed to let me know, and thought they’d think badly of you, and of me by association, because of that. So, what? Were you planning on pretending I — and them — didn’t exist until summer break or something? Would that be long enough to forget a fucking missed lunch?” and to that, yeah, Jeno had no answer. Would he really go that far? Were his communication skills truly that shitty? So he settled on a plain and simple:

“‘M sorry.” Silence. Then an exhale. 

“You’re so fucking absurd, Jeno Lee. Truly moronic. Unparalleled levels of idiocy. Stupidity never seen before—”

“ _Okay_ , okay, I get it, okay. Sorry. Won’t happen again.” 

“No you _don’t_ get it,” and Donghyuck lifted his ramen cup once again, furiously stabbing the remains with his metal chopsticks. “I literally thought that some idiot like — say, Mark Lee — had brainwashed you into hating me because I’m hanging out with another kid that enjoys breaking minor school rules, and that we’re really not worth the trouble for the friendship, or something.”

Jeno finished the last of his fire ramen and mentally counted to five. “I really, really want to cuss you out for actually making me listen to this bullshit, but I guess I was no better,” a smile “So, are we good, or..?” 

Donghyuck fake pondered, whistling. “Well, I don’t know. You still owe us lunch. Jaemin said he did catch a glimpse of you that Monday, and that one time when he came to our class, but Yangyang is saying he hallucinated and that I’m making you up,” and the small piece of information that Jeno had been in the mind of — even if fleetingly — the blue-and-blonde haired kid shouldn’t have grasped his attention the way it did. It really shouldn’t. “So I’m gonna give you a chance of making up for it. What do you say about smoothies with us tomorrow after class?” 

“I thought Jaemin had detention” he blurted out. Which, with anyone else, in literally any other setting, would’ve been fine. But Jeno was in his best friend’s bedroom, talking to Donghyuck face to face, and they had known each other since before elementary school, since way before Jeno moved next door, and they knew each other, really knew each other, and right now even if Donghyuck wasn’t a mind reader (to be fair, Jeno kind of wished he was, so Donghyuck could help him sort out the mess going on in his head), from the small stunned silence that followed, he picked up on something Jeno wasn’t aware he was letting show. Donghyuck’s eyes narrowed slightly. 

“Mr. Choi is in charge of detention this week, and he really doesn’t like doing it. Since Jaemin was the only one up for detention this Friday, he said, and I quote, ‘Mr. Choi also thinks the dress code is ridiculous and he wants to leave for the beach after lunch so he’s letting me off.’ That’s not important though,” and Donghyuck still had this far-away look, searching for something in Jeno’s face. “Are you in for smoothies? Like, legit? No backing off without saying something first and pulling a— whatever that was that you did this week?” 

Jeno swallowed, a faint pressure in his stomach that had nothing to do with fire ramen. “Yeah, let’s do it.” 

By three in the afternoon of the next day, Jeno was actively trying to escape from death. 

“Put that shit away!” 

“Jeno, there’s a—”

“Fuck you!”

“I’m serious, get out of the—” 

He stumbled to the sidewalk after some rather aggressive honking from a white Chevrolet. All he could see from this side of the street were his best friends doubling over from laughter, Renjun still holding the assortment of dandelions he plucked from the pavement. 

“For real, come back here for a second!” Donghyuck hollered, to which Jeno answered by raising both his middle fingers (one to Renjun, and the other to the goddamn car) and stomping away. It only took a couple of seconds for him to hear both boys approaching, panting from the short jaywalk and all the laughing. 

“Renjun, I _will_ rip your fingers off if you’re still holding the devil’s weed.” Jeno managed to say in the most serious tone he could muster. Renjun snorted. 

“Relax, I left the poor dandelions there,” and raised both hands, empty, a peace offering “See? You can breathe now.”

Jeno shrugged off Renjun’s attempts of putting an arm over his shoulders. “Not if you try to keep these hands close to me, I won’t. Do you know how much pollen and shit must be all over you right now?” Donghyuck was still chuckling, and wiped away a fake tear. 

“You gotta admit it was funny as fuck.”

“Smashing your face in, that’s what’s gonna be funny as fuck.” Jeno mumbled. 

Donghyuck whistled. “Gotta hand it to you though. This semester you’ve been cheating your allergies for almost a month. It’s gotta be some new record.”

Renjun hummed. “I give him two more days.” Jeno suddenly stopped.

“Knock on wood,” his voice wavered “On god, Renjun, knock on wood. Exams with allergies is the literal last thing I need in my life right now.” 

“Exactly. You’ve been too relaxed. Your rhinitis only acts up when you’re stressed to make you even more miserable, it’s like, Murphy’s law.” Jeno grimaced. It’s not like Renjun wasn’t right. His body did tend to have worse reactions at the most unfortunate moments, and Jeno was sort of wondering just how bad his next allergic reaction would be, since it had been so long since he had any. He wasn’t taking chances, though, and since Renjun’s idea of a fun afternoon was triggering Jeno’s probable death with sidewalk dandelions, he was prepared to visibly sulk until they arrived at the mall, and have Renjun make up for all the trouble by paying for Jeno’s smoothie. It made him feel slightly better to see that Renjun was already side-eyeing his pout. 

“What is wrong with people,” Donghyuck grumbled, after pushing open the glass doors to the mall’s entrance. “Did this entire town make some sort of agreement to not turn on any air conditioner until there are literal deaths because of the heat wave?”

Though Jeno would welcome some artificial breeze to dry the patches of shirt sticking to his back, he was slightly grateful that the mall’s AC wasn’t on, particularly after not knowing whether his body would catch up with Renjun’s earlier prank or not. After all, he was currently a man on a mission, and that mission was getting smoothies to appease Donghyuck after avoiding him for a week, and so Jeno was not going to go home early for some ridiculous reason, like he’s turning purple and crying from all the sneezing and some old lady thinks he’s having a seizure and calls for the mall’s paramedics, or something. Chenle still has the recording of a similar accident from last year on a Google Drive folder he shares with Jisung. 

And so Jeno tried his best to not cringe when putting his backpack down on the seat to his right, because now that his back was free from the extra rough layer, so was the sweat to roll down his skin until it pooled on the seams of his uniform pants. The little sacrifices. 

“Tell me about it. I’m five seconds away from wasting my allowance on a new pair of shorts,” Renjun unceremoniously threw his own backpack on the floor, reaching for the smoothie menu at the center of the table. “Just taking off the uniform sweaters doesn’t cut it anymore. But what are y’all having?” 

Donghyuck was too entertained by whoever he was texting on his phone to hear Renjun’s question, but Jeno kept silent, dramatically turning his face away. 

Renjun sighed. 

“Fucking crybaby. If you don’t tell me your order I can’t pay for it.”

“Not fair, since when does Jeno get a free smoothie and I don’t?” Donghyuck whined, tossing his phone onto the table. 

“If it’s what takes to get that ugly pout out of his face, it’s a small price to pay,” Renjun ignored Jeno’s offended huff “Besides, I really did risk getting an ambulance called on him by either dandelion asphyxiation or by getting some middle class sedan run him over, so.”

Donghyuck’s eyes lit up. “Oh man, talking about ambulance, remember last fall when we went to that campus tour at Sicheng’s—”

“I’ll have the papaya smoothie.” Jeno announced, a tad too quickly, a tad too loudly, and the small child a couple of tables over turned to look at him. He didn’t even remember whether there was a papaya smoothie in the menu. Donghyuck smirked, but didn’t continue his retelling of the time Renjun’s cousin Sicheng had to use the good samaritan policy at his university to waive the costs of an ambulance ride for Jeno. It wasn’t his fault that it was the first (or second?) week of fall and they insisted on walking right next to a working leaf blower. Donghyuck picked his phone back up and slouched on the uncomfortable plastic chair. Renjun extended a hand to Donghyuck’s direction. 

“Give me your money and your order and I’ll get yours too.” Donghyuck didn’t look up when trying to lace his fingers with Renjun. Jeno snorted. Renjun slapped his hand away. 

“Why can’t you just order everything and I’ll pay you back once we leave?”

“I don’t trust you with money. Or at all.” Donghyuck rolled his eyes but slapped Renjun’s hand back, leaving a five dollar bill on his palm. 

“I want the one with all the berries. I’ll be able to taste it if you forget to ask for one of them!” he shouted at Renjun’s back, who was already making his way to the counter before listening to the order. Donghyuck wrinkled his nose, complaining about favoritism, but the new message lighting up his phone got him distracted enough. 

Any other time, Jeno might’ve teased Donghyuck about who he could possibly be texting, since his only friends were physically next to him. Today, though, he side-eyed the phone quietly, hoping that maybe one of the many _pings_ that came from it — Donghyuck never really put his phone on silent, and if no amount of detention threats from their teachers when it goes off in class was enough to make him silence it, nothing really was — would be some poorly crafted message from Donghyuck’s new friends, saying that _something came up, sorry, can’t make it, maybe next time_. Jeno didn’t have time to figure out a cool and blasé enough retort yet to the inevitable jab one of them would make about his weird ass reaction early that week. He ran a couple of bad excuses through his mind, rehearsing the least horrible ones. 

Donghyuck unfortunately had a pretty much infallible Jeno Bullshit Detector, a personal type of sixth sense, as he liked to call, and raised his head up from the phone with narrowed eyes at Jeno’s silence, as if he was actually listening to one of the ridiculous excuses. “I’m just giving you a heads up that they’re almost here, so when I actually introduce you, you won’t run away crying again.” 

“Who’s crying?” Renjun kicked his chair out of the way, clutching the three smoothies close to his chest. Jeno made a pained noise, making grabbing motions to the orange sugary concoction. 

“I didn’t cry,” Jeno held the plastic cup against his forehead, rolling it from temple to temple “I also didn’t run. That’s bullshit. You didn’t even see me leaving!” 

“Yeah, but Nana did. And I did see you running away that one time in the classroom, don’t you think I didn’t, you’re not nearly as stealthy as you think you are.” 

Renjun put his own cold cup against the insides of his wrists, frowning. “Who the fuck is Nana?”

“I think that’s me,” came a soft voice from behind Jeno, a chair scraping to his left, while a guy with auburn hair pulled one between Donghyuck and Renjun “Hi.” 

“Holy shit, Lee Donghyuck _actually_ has friends,” auburn hair said, trying to snatch Donghyuck’s smoothie. 

“Shut up Yangyang, that’s getting real old. And get your paws off my drink!”

“Not by choice.” Renjun stage whispered to the guy, and next to Jeno there was a chuckle. 

Now, Jeno was prepared to deal with two additions to their friend group. Hell, if anything, it was Renjun who was never fully ready to deal with new people, and Donghyuck was only ever scared to show his true colors to just anyone. Jeno was the token extrovert from their trio, so until Donghyuck got comfortable, Jeno was supposed to be their little social butterfly. 

Because Jeno was good with people. He was. He was the one who approached the underclassmen. He was the first to be on talking terms with Mark Lee — before Donghyuck made him his personal nemesis — and the rest of the student council — before Renjun befriended them to piss Donghyuck off. He was the one who stayed behind on most days to play basketball in the empty court with Yukhei and the senior class. He was the one invited to social gatherings of most class clubs despite being — officially — part of none, besides that one art club Renjun signed them up for during freshman year. He was the one who kept in touch with well liked graduates such as Kim Doyoung, who even occasionally invited Jeno to hang out with his university friends. And he also kept in touch with said university friends. 

Point was, Jeno didn’t overthink social interactions. He didn’t overanalyze, didn’t dissect everyone’s every word and move and tone and expression, and that’s why people found him sweet and easy to be around. That’s why he was approachable. He was the guy who always knew what to say next, because he didn’t think much about hidden meanings behind his words. It had always been like that. 

But right now he was tuned to an airy laugh and a wide smile and _teeth_ , so many white square teeth, and a shock of blue fringe on wet bleached blonde hair, and a white graphic tee that was most definitely _not_ part of their school’s uniform, regardless of how amicable the alien cartoon faces were. He was focused on long dark eyelashes and wiry wrists and nails cut a bit too short scratching beads of sweat next to ears with fake piercings. 

He was running and rerunning the image in his mind because he looked over for a split second before resolutely staring back at his papaya smoothie cup. Jeno wasn’t really sure how long it was socially acceptable to stare at someone he just met, and he suddenly didn’t want to figure it out. And should he have already introduced himself? But didn’t they already know who he was? Did he miss the opportunity to add a quirky remark to the banter between his friends, something to follow up on Renjun’s words? Was Donghyuck expecting him to, did Yangyang already look over to him, was Renjun waiting for Jeno’s turn to speak?

When the chuckle faded, Jeno thought the past two seconds had surely been the longest of his entire life. 

“Also,” Renjun’s voice sounded somewhat distant to Jeno, ears still ringing from the quiet laugh by his side “Sorry for that, man, I was rude. I didn’t know Hyuck called you Nana.” 

A shrug, the wiry wrists dropping on top of the table. “Nah dude, that’s okay. Not a lot of people call me Nana, anyway. Hyuck just won’t stop after hearing my mom call me that.” Yangyang and Donghyuck shared a look, snickering. 

“So you don’t like being called,” a gulp “Nana?” Jeno tried, diving straight back into his smoothie once he felt Jaemin’s attention on him. 

It took Jaemin a moment to answer, gaze still on Jeno, whose heartbeat was skyrocketing by the millisecond. He knew he should’ve kept quiet. Should have let Renjun do the taking. Should have at least cleared his throat before speaking, oh god, did he sound like he was drowning, was his voice unnaturally high pitched, did he enunciate the words clearly, maybe Jaemin didn’t understand the question and—

“No, I like Nana. But I like any nickname, really, so don’t stress about it. You can call me anything.” Jeno nodded meekly, automatically, looking at nothing in particular, and maybe pretending a bit too hard to focus on his smoothie. If he kept it up, in less than three minutes the content of the cup would be gone, and he would have no choice but to properly interact with the newcomers, properly talk to them, properly listen, properly reply. Properly process _their_ replies. 

And Jaemin’s voice was soft. Unlike the image Jeno conjured in his head from the things he heard about the ‘detention kid’, and everything else in his appearance. Not shockingly bright like his smile, not suave like the way he moved, not sharp like his eyes. It was soft and it was smooth and it was the first time it was directed to Jeno since he had first heard the name Na Jaemin. His heartbeat somehow didn’t slow down. 

Forcing the smoothie cup a few inches away from himself, Jeno tried focusing again on the conversation, that had in the last few seconds taken a turn to Yangyang coming up with the worst possible nicknames, since Jaemin apparently liked to be called anything. Jeno tried to tell himself that the reason why everything sounded so muted and far away was that he had just given himself brain freeze from the papaya-flavored ice, which he’d understandably need a few moments to recover from. But Jeno still heard the hard breathing of the exasperated, not quite laugh Jaemin would make at Yangyang’s suggestions with terrifying clarity. 

“You could use all that creativity to whip up your own smoothie you know, and stop trying to steal mine,” Donghyuck hissed, holding what was left of his berry smoothie out of Yangyang’s reach. 

“Asshole,” was hissed back, turned to Jaemin “You want one too?” And had Jeno been friends with other people, Yangyang’s sudden change of tone and behavior might have given him whiplash. 

“I mean, sure? Never gotten anything from here before though,” Jaemin raised the menu at the center of the table with his ring finger, and let it fall. He repeated the motion all the while answering, but didn’t properly pick up the greasy piece of laminated paper. Instead, Jeno watched Jaemin look from Donghyuck’s cup, to Renjun’s, to Jeno’s. His gaze flitted up to Jeno’s face for a second before returning to Yangyang. “Got any suggestions?” 

Yangyang hummed. “Hyuck’s whatever berry one is good. Kinda too warm now, so his straw’s all soggy and shit but it tastes okay,” he pointed with his chin to the other two cups, Donghyuck’s choice of words about Yangyang’s mom not complaining about his soggy straw last night ignored. “Which ones did you guys get?” 

While Renjun went on an excited spiel about how great the new honeydew smoothie was, Jeno kept drumming his fingers on the plastic cup, feeling once more like he missed an opportunity to be part of the conversation. When both Yangyang and Donghyuck joined in a heated debate over whether almond milk was better than soy milk, Jeno curled himself on the chair, its plastic edges leaving angry red marks on his forearms. 

Resting both elbows on top of the table, Jaemin hooked his head on his shoulder, looking intently back at Jeno. “What’s yours?” Jaemin asked, voice still soft, too soft. 

Startled, it took a moment for Jeno to realize Jaemin was talking to him. “Uh,” and looked back at his smoothie, making sure it was still the same one he ordered, because god knew Jeno wasn’t above embarrassing himself and saying the wrong flavor even if the cup was still in front of him. “Papaya.” Jaemin smiled, tilting his head, and Jeno suddenly felt his forehead fill with sweat again. 

“Mind if I try?” 

Jeno hummed distractedly, sliding the cup closer to Jaemin’s elbows. He felt a bit dizzy. Mostly trying to not stare as Jaemin turned the straw in the cup, Jeno focused on a point somewhere behind Donghyuck’s left shoulder, and observed the young cashier with questionable red hair explain the menu to some middle school kids. He most definitely did not pay attention to his peripheral vision where Jaemin leaned in to drink twice instead of just once, most definitely did not see him absentmindedly chew on the straw before deciding to not drink a third time, most definitely did not strain himself to hear Jaemin’s hum of approval, most definitely not notice the small pout and frown of Jaemin’s probable brain freeze. Jeno did absolutely not. 

So when Jaemin slid the cup with what was left of the smoothie back, Jeno gave him a questioning glance, as if he didn’t know Jaemin’s opinion on it by now. Jaemin scrunched his nose a little, elbows back on top of the table. “Not bad. But I think that with this amount of sugar, all smoothies here gotta taste more or less the same, huh?” 

Trying not to appear too defeated, Jeno murmured a half-hearted ‘I guess’ and scratched the back to his neck, twirling the offending plastic cup with the other hand. And it really wasn’t logical, but Jeno felt like Jaemin not liking his choice in smoothie meant that he didn’t like him at all. Jeno wasn’t too sure how high his mental jump was to reach that conclusion, but it would surely qualify him for the Olympics. 

It wasn’t until the green smoothie straw was already back in his mouth that Jeno’s mind helpfully supplied him with the image of Jaemin chewing on it just a minute prior. That, and his newfound selective hearing, triggered a coughing fit that had Donghyuck and Renjun exchanging glances. 

They were probably talking about smoothie flavors, Jeno argued with himself as Donghyuck passed him extra napkins. That’s what it was. But nothing really could have prepared Jeno to Jaemin saying ‘Jeno is my favorite’ when Yangyang was standing up to pay for their second round of smoothies. After all, he had just tried the papaya smoothie. Except, hadn’t he said he didn’t really like it? Something to do with the sugar level?

But Jaemin had been looking straight at Jeno, not Jeno’s cup, and his large bright smile was for once subdued, just as soft as his voice, and Jeno felt his stomach twist before his eyes started watering, before he swallowed a piece of shaved ice through the wrong pipe, before his mind caught up with Jaemin’s words and went haywire. 

“Is he breathing?” Yangyang’s eyes widened “I don’t think coughs are supposed to sound like that.”

Holding another napkin to Jeno’s face, Donghyuck started clapping heavily on his back. “He’s fine,” Donghyuck said to a mildly shocked Yangyang and Jaemin “Actually happens more often than it should. It’s just his allergies probably acting up again,” and then to a guilty looking Renjun, through Donghyuck’s gritted teeth “All because of a certain someone’s prank earlier.”

Renjun held both hands up, rolling his eyes “Like I was in it alone!” and an indignant huff from Donghyuck. 

And yeah, Donghyuck was right. Coughs like that were one of the ways his allergy attacks started. Had it been triggered by Renjun’s dandelions, though, Jeno would have started coughing even before his smoothie was paid for. The mall’s AC wasn’t on, the tables weren’t dirty to the point of accumulating dust, he surely wasn’t allergic to papaya — or any ingredients used by this smoothie stall. There was nothing that could trigger this reaction, at least that he knew of. 

A couple of minutes, a glass of water, and Renjun politely asking for the next table’s napkin dispenser later, Jeno’s coughs seemed to have been subdued. 

“Damn bro, you just live like that?” Yangyang’s expression throughout the whole ordeal slowly shifted from mild shock, to mild concern, to mild wonder. 

Jeno sniffed, nodded “Usually happens in the first couple of weeks of a new season. My body just hates them for some reason.” Another sniff, a chuckle “This wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. Those two have seen some serious shit,” and Donghyuck readily agreed, eagerly retelling some of Jeno’s allergy stories from middle school. 

To his left, Jeno could see Jaemin chew the inside of his mouth, short nails rhythmically knocking on the napkin dispenser. And then he turned towards Jeno “Don’t you carry any medicine on you, then?” Jeno shook his head. 

“Nothing really happened these past few weeks, so I guessed my body was over hating changes in the weather,” he shrugged “Guess I got lucky this time too.”

Jaemin hummed. “Yeah, man, that was scary. Guess you really did.” 

Maybe it was the universe getting back at Jeno from embarrassing Donghyuck for a week in front of his new friends. Maybe it was payback for the one time last month when Jeno told Renjun to suck it up when his friend was complaining from a runny nose. Maybe it was because of that time he didn’t remember one of Doyoung’s university friends, Johnny, had a light peanut allergy, and Jeno had the audacity of trying to share peanut M&M’s with him. 

When Jaemin sympathetically patted Jeno’s shoulder, hand staying in place a second or two too long, and Jeno started to break in cold sweat, eyes welling up, he really thought he’d spoke too early, and was not lucky at all. What did happen, though, as Jeno reached towards the other napkins, was that he had an epiphany moment where he found the source of this reaction. 

So, Jeno might be allergic to Jaemin. At least that was the only possible explanation to why the coughing fit was not only back, but his face also suddenly turned as red as beet and his heart wouldn’t stop pounding and he was pretty sure his skin was itching after only a quick pat on the shoulder and a shared drink with this boy he just met.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i made a [new twitter acc](https://twitter.com/mxtchxlatte) just because my 2020 resolution is to actually write, so come talk to me about my fifteen wips that might or might not ever see the light of day :D
> 
> this is the first fic i’ve ever posted so i’d love to know what you think of it so far! 
> 
> (and i should probably add the slow burn tag to it since this thing was supposed to have 5k words in total but i got carried away hah)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There’s less than a week until they can start wearing summer uniforms, and the anticipation might do more harm than good (but will it really?)

For the first time that month, Renjun had been the last to enter the classroom, just two minutes before the bell rang. Sighing loudly before picking up the red marker, he drew a lazy number five, turning the round part into a sun with squiggly rays. Jeno tapped one of his blue pens on the desk in time with Renjun’s angry stabs to the white board. Mrs. Kwon didn’t even notice Renjun probably ruining the tip of the marker, and instead took three whole minutes to arrange her material on the teacher’s desk, stopping to fan herself every few seconds. 

“There should be a law against this, or something.” Renjun grumbled as he took his seat behind Jeno. Mrs. Kwon struggled to get the projector working to go over the English midterm they’d gotten back the day before. Jeno angled himself so Renjun could see his raised eyebrow. 

“What should?” But he didn’t really even need to ask, because Renjun was already unlocking his phone and opening the calendar app, a confusing array of colors and words. 

“See this?” he leaned over his desk, pushing the phone against Jeno’s elbow, just out of sight in case their English teacher looked over “The one day in blue. That’s when the equinox is gonna be.”

Jeno wasn’t following. Of course he knew when the equinox would be, that was the whole point of The Great Countdown. “Yeah, I know..?” Renjun huffed, clicking on the blue date.

“Jeno, that thing is gonna be on Saturday!” Mrs. Kwon looked in their direction, and Jeno quickly lowered Renjun’s hand and phone, trying to seem focused on the lesson. “Which means we’re only gonna be allowed to start wearing summer uniforms next Monday” he continued, an angry whisper. Eunbin leaned over when Mrs. Kwon started having problems zooming into one of the questions. 

“Honestly,” she shook her head, turning Renjun’s phone to see the screen better “I just wanna know why they’re so hell-bent on this equinox idea. Next week isn’t going to be any different than the past couple of weeks. It’s ridiculous.” Jeno hummed.

“Yeah, but I heard they’re gonna turn on the air conditioning of classrooms tomorrow. So at least we have that, I guess?” Eunbin whispered a fervent _thank God_ before unlocking her phone under the desk and probably texting all her friends about it, but Renjun remained silent. Jeno was suddenly hit with the uncomfortable feeling that he might have somehow said the wrong thing, and turned slightly around to look at his friend. Renjun had his brows furrowed. 

“Who told you that?” A second. Two. “Jaemin?” Jeno turned back around, trying his hardest to focus on Mrs. Kwon talking about the best way to translate that _Frankenstein_ paragraph that was on the second page of their midterm. He meekly scratched the back of his neck.

“Yeah. He was talking to one of the custodians yesterday after his detention, and that’s what they told him.”

“Huh,” and Jeno was praying Renjun would let the subject go “He didn’t say anything in the group chat.” 

“Oh,” a gulp “He probably just texted the most recent people on his messages. I—” a breath “I texted him about playing basketball, but he had detention.” He gave a dry laugh, trying to not look nervous. Why was he nervous?

Renjun kept quiet for a long moment. Jeno fiddled with one of his blue pens, wondering if he should have said something else, or if he had already said too much. Did it sound like an excuse? Did it sound like a lie? It technically wasn’t one. Except for Jeno omitting the fact that he was right next to Jaemin during the conversation with the custodian as they waited for the bus to Jaemin’s house. Saying he had just received a text seemed like a safer alternative, for some reason. But safer from what? And would Renjun wonder about why Jeno was texting _Jaemin_ about playing basketball? How would he explain that? Was there something to explain? Was it all in Jeno’s head? He took a deep breath.

After the Smoothie Incident on Friday, once the very concerned young cashier with questionable red hair offered them two free water bottles, and Renjun led them all outside so Jeno could finish coughing his lungs out, Donghyuck had what he called _brilliant idea_ to make a group chat so they could all hang out some other time — the part about doing so when Jeno was alive again and not ruining the mood left unsaid. 

Jeno then was actually surprised when the first person to properly text in the group chat had been Jaemin, inviting them all to play basketball and grab lunch the very next morning. He hadn’t been surprised about Jaemin being the most sociable out of all of them, but actually that Jaemin had included Jeno in his plans, despite the whole ordeal at the smoothie stand. 

And that’s why, Jeno told himself, smiling over a piece of buttered toast before his dad gave him a very stern no-phones-during-breakfast look, that his heart might’ve skipped a beat at the thought of Jaemin not minding his allergy attacks, and still wanting him to feel included. It was nice to have someone other than his best friends caring so much, and that was all. 

Later that Saturday, when Jeno felt his heart skip a beat for the second time, he told himself that it was because seeing anyone make a three-pointer look so effortless would make him feel like that, and definitely not because of the smile Jaemin gave after scoring, much less his playful wink, because _that_ had to be totally, one hundred percent, directed to Donghyuck, who _had_ to be somewhere behind Jeno, since Donghyuck missed a three-pointer by a mile just minutes before. 

So when Jeno felt his heart skip a beat for the third time that evening, after receiving a text from Jaemin that went ‘ _hey, just wanted to say i had so much fun today! glad nothing triggered your allergies. have a good night!_ ’, he told himself that Jaemin had probably individually texted everyone from that afternoon, and that it just felt nice to know someone — anyone, really — was thinking about him. Jeno had nothing to say to how his heart skipped a beat a fourth time when, after replying a lame ‘ _lol had a lot of fun too. sleep well_ ’, Jaemin’s answer came in the form of an Ice Bear sticker holding a heart. 

He had no way of explaining, though, why Jaemin spent the entirety of Sunday sending random texts and pictures not to their group chat — even though Yangyang and Donghyuck were very much active there for the majority of the day — but to his individual chat with Jeno. No way of rationalizing the good morning text, with a picture of Jaemin’s brown Cane Corso trying to steal a waffle from the breakfast table; not to Jaemin’s brief complaint about his baby cousin, all the while sounding utterly endeared; not to Jaemin’s selfie at the movie theater with his mom, wearing ridiculously big 3D glasses; not to a long talk at night about the set up of their childhood bedrooms, and how rearranging the furniture around might have changed the _feng shui_ of their lives; not to the good night text followed by a plain red heart emoji that almost made Jeno late for class the next day. 

And when Donghyuck and Yangyang complained during lunch about how Jaemin had ghosted them for most of the weekend, Jeno _definitely_ had no explanation for the look and soft smile Jaemin gave him, much less to the not entirely unpleasant chill that went down his spine. 

So when Jaemin spent the whole time he supposedly was at detention texting Jeno, he wasn’t surprised anymore — instead, he was for once mildly annoyed at Yukhei for insisting Jeno put his phone down and focused on the team. He wasn’t surprised either when Jaemin stopped by the courts after detention and invited Jeno for games at his house, wasn’t surprised when he noticed Jaemin hadn’t invited the others. Wasn’t surprised when he stayed over just until a little before dinner time, wasn’t surprised with how much fun he had, wasn’t surprised by how lovely Jaemin’s mother was, wasn’t surprised by how his heart managed to skip a few more beats, wasn’t surprised by two very minor allergy attacks that coincided with the times when Jaemin leaned in too close. Wasn’t surprised that Jaemin didn’t even look at his phone the whole time Jeno was there, wasn’t surprised that Donghyuck left a few colorful messages in the group chat, complaining about Jaemin’s radio silence. 

Wasn’t surprised by the silly smile plastered on his face when he caught sight of his reflection on the bus window when going home. His parents, though, were actually surprised when Jeno arrived at dinner time from neither Donghyuck’s nor Renjun’s house. Were also surprised that he spent most of a school day afternoon playing games with someone he became friends with over the weekend. But Jeno washed all the dishes and brought ice cream to his parents in the living room, and then they forgot they were once surprised at all. 

If Renjun saying he’d heard no news about the air conditioners from Jaemin gave Jeno a small sense of satisfaction, he didn’t mull over it. The feeling was still there, though — the smugness that came with knowing something others didn’t. In particular, the smugness that came with knowing that just in a few days he might’ve become a priority of sorts in Jaemin’s books, but even the thought of that made Jeno’s cheeks warm and _that_ was something he didn’t want to mull over. 

Under the desk, his phone lit up. Jeno’s heartbeat quickened, as it usually had the past few days every time he got a message, but it was just a Twitter notification from Doyoung. Disappointed (disappointed? What was there to be disappointed about, he thought), but still mildly interested — Doyoung was notorious for telling everyone he hated social media, and would not succumb to any medium other than Instagram — Jeno didn’t even get to open Doyoung’s new profile before dropping his phone with a deafening clatter. 

Coughing and feigning innocence when Mrs. Kwon — and a few students nearby — looked over, Jeno silently nudged his phone with the tip of his sneakers and tried bringing it back closer from where it landed, almost under Eunbin’s desk. Quickly dipping down to grab the phone once their English teacher turned back around, Jeno unlocked it with shaky fingers. Jaemin’s new message was still there.

**did you tell renjun abt the a/c thing?**

Swallowing over the bad feeling lodged in his throat, Jeno shot a quick reply, still eyeing Mrs. Kwon. Shit. Was it supposed to be a secret?

_it slipped. i’m so sorry i didn’t know it was a secret i’m really sorry_

**hey, hey, no!!**

**it’s just that he just texted me asking abt it**

**i was just kind of hoping it could be our secret for a while so we could see their reactions together tomorrow :(**

**but that’s okay!! don’t worry**

Jeno couldn’t breathe.

_ah i see :/ well i’m still sorry for that_

One second. Two. Jeno was sure he could hear his own heartbeat over the class president’s voice asking something to their teacher. 

**make it up to me then!!!**

There was typing, and then it stopped. The typing resumed three more times, to stop again, and Jeno was ready to say something utterly ridiculous, like offering to take Jaemin out for dinner, if there was any more of that. 

**wanna come over for games today? i just got my last midterm back and my mom’s gonna give me allowance so snacks are on me ^^**

_lol are you kidding, snacks are on me_

**guests don’t pay for snacks!!**

_well i’ll be the one intruding so the least i can do is get the snacks_

More typing and stopping. 

**hm we’ll talk about it >:( pay attention to class, don’t want you to have detention the one day i’m free!!**

But even after successfully hiding his phone, Jeno found it hard to pay attention to anything beyond the sound of his racing heart and the stupid smile plastered on his face, that would probably scare Mrs. Kwon if she were to look at him right at that moment. Resting the lower half of his face in his hand to cover his mouth, Jeno stared off the window and for once didn’t mind the scorching morning sun covering his desk. 

“Hold up, where are you going??” Donghyuck grabbed Jeno by his sweater’s sleeve. “If we don’t sit down within the next fifteen seconds we’re gonna have to eat on the floor!”

“I think there’s a table over there by the kid with—”

“Jaemin’s got a table outside.” Jeno interrupted Renjun. Donghyuck froze for a second, still holding on to Jeno’s sleeve, and Renjun let the hand he was using to point towards whatever table was still empty fall. They shared a look before focusing back on Jeno. 

“Are you crazy? In this weather?”

Jeno shrugged, and Donghyuck slowly let go of his sweater. “The breeze is really nice today, and it’s not _that_ warm. Jaemin swears the table’s by the shadow too,” Jeno pointedly ignored the second quick look his best friends shared, choosing to hold up his phone as if Jaemin’s message was all over the screen “he— he said he got here a few minutes earlier, and sitting outside actually felt less stuffy than inside—”

“Jaemin’s messaging you while we’re all in class?” and something about the mildly incredulous tone in Donghyuck’s voice got rid of the nearly infallible brain-to-mouth filter Jeno always thought he had. 

“What, like he doesn’t text you during class too?” the way Donghyuck looked at him made Jeno feel like they were both back in Donghyuck’s room, towels around their necks and struggling to finish their cups of fire ramen. Like he was still searching for something in Jeno’s face, and finding more than Jeno thought he was allowed to know. It either only lasted for a second, though, or Jeno was positive he was starting to hallucinate without the help of allergy meds. 

“With the amount of detention he already gets for fucking with the dress code? Dude says he wouldn’t text anybody during class unless it was his mom and his mom was in the hospital, so no, he doesn’t.” Donghyuck enunciated the last part slowly, breaking eye contact to glance at Jeno’s phone and then back outside. 

Jeno’s breath hitched, and his hand constricted around his phone. Now that was a new piece of information he needed to add to the growing pile of things he couldn’t explain about Na Jaemin’s behavior, a pile which had occupied a great majority of his mind since he first laid eyes on the guy. A pile that had only exponentially grown after he actually stopped running away from Jaemin, and Jeno had an inkling that he’d seen nothing yet. 

Jaemin still had texted him during class first. On most periods on Monday, almost non-stop since the third period of that Tuesday morning — it had been Jaemin who started the conversations, when they were in class, when they were not, all of them. Except, perhaps, when Jeno sent a picture of his math midterm grade, but even that was in response to Jaemin teasing him about a conversation they had on Sunday night, though it wasn’t enough to make Jaemin quit teasing him about it. And Jeno found he didn’t really mind. 

“Well, I mean, all he did was text me to tell you all where he and Yangyang were sitting?”

“So he said that to you in a private chat, instead of sending something to the group?” Renjun gestured vaguely, as if still processing the whole thing. Though it was the second time that morning where Renjun directly asked why Jaemin was privately texting him, Jeno could only hope that Jaemin texted all of them similarly, so there’d be nothing to over analyze, nothing to catch up on. Nothing to make Jeno lose any more sleep over. But something passed through Donghyuck’s expression, so quick Jeno almost didn’t even notice, that was hidden by a sigh and an over dramatic pout. 

“I can’t believe that lazy ass didn’t want to scroll down all the way to find our group chat. Does he even text that many people?” Donghyuck huffed, tone soundly weirdly affected, and hastily tried opening the glass doors to the patio with one hand while balancing his food tray on the other. Still inside the cafeteria, Jeno heard Donghyuck belt out a ‘Jaemin you motherfucking—’ before the doors could fully close and drown out the rest of the sentence. 

“Oh my God,” the class president’s voice came from Renjun’s side “can’t he tone it down a bit while he’s still on school grounds?”

Renjun gave him a sympathetic smile. “We’ve been trying to knock some sense into him, but since Hyuck watched The Wolf of Wall Street during winter break he’s been particularly insufferable.” Mark grimaced.

“Yeah, we all noticed. I actually—” Mark’s words were interrupted by Donghyuck’s knock on the glass doors, gesturing for Jeno to hurry up. As soon as Jeno eyes flitted to where the class president and Renjun stood, Donghyuck paused for a second before knocking on glass a second time, rather aggressively. Once he had the undivided attention of the three of them — as well as of the two tables next to the doors — he punched his middle finger against the door and stormed off out of view. 

“— hope he suffers from a heatstroke.” The class president finished quietly, unaware of Renjun pinching Jeno’s back so he could refrain from snorting. Jeno decided against commenting about how the expletives Mark muttered under his breath for a solid ten seconds after that were just as bad as Donghyuck’s, and instead bid goodbye to the very distracted classmate as he dragged Renjun through the glass doors. 

“Listen,” Donghyuck started as soon as they approached the only table under the shadow, accusingly pointing a piece of sandwich their way “If you both wanted to seat with that mongrel for lunch you just had to say, y’know.”

Renjun put his food tray down so he could slap the back of Donghyuck’s head, murmuring a ‘shut up’ while he greeted a very confused Yangyang. 

“Glad you chose to be here though,” and that was Jaemin, and Jeno’s hand shook slightly before putting his own tray between Donghyuck and him, and he took his sweet time (which amounted to a grand total of four seconds) to sit down and properly look at Jaemin.

If the happy churn in Jeno’s stomach was a result of Jaemin’s words, then Jaemin’s smile — shockingly bright, too many white teeth, how could his mouth stretch so wide? — while the boy was resting on both elbows over the tabletop, too close, much closer to Jeno’s face than he had expected, was enough reason for Jeno to breathe down the wrong pipe a break into a small coughing fit. 

He didn’t know what to think of Jaemin being the first to slide him an already uncapped water bottle, smile not diminishing in the least, as if the boy was somehow already expecting that minor convulsion. 

“Thanks,” Jeno cleared his throat, wiping the water around his mouth with a woolen sleeve “And, I mean, of course. Can’t risk having Hyuck murdering me in my sleep.” Which prompted Donghyuck to list off the reasons why Mark Lee was the Worst-Person-to-Ever-Share-a-Class-or-Lunch-Table-With, and how the class president would not survive the first month of college — as if Donghyuck knew anything about being in college, _or_ about sharing a lunch table with Mark Lee. 

Jeno was grateful for the slight distraction though, even if his attention was occasionally pulled back by the airy chuckles coming from his right, and the way that whenever Jaemin laughed, his elbow inched closer to where Jeno’s forearm was resting. 

But Jeno wouldn’t think about it. Because he didn’t think anything of all the times Donghyuck back-hugged him. Because he didn’t think about how Chenle had the habit of grabbing his wrist when excited about something. Because he didn’t think anything of Doyoung always slinging an arm around his shoulders, as if they were somehow magnetized. Because he didn’t think about how Jungwoo always held his hand when asking him to walk faster. So why the hell would Jeno be so fixated on his new friend almost making skin contact with him? 

So he wouldn’t think about it, because there was no reason to. There would be no skin-ship at all.

Except that Jaemin didn’t get the memo. 

“Hey,” he started, tapping lightly on Jeno’s wrist with his pinky finger “are we on for this afternoon?”

Jeno sneaked a glance at the other three, now heatedly debating something about the new lab assistant, and how Yangyang was going to ace all science classes just to piss the guy off, so Jeno decided it was safe enough to look Jaemin directly in the eyes. “Is your mom okay with that? I was there yesterday too.” Jaemin frowned, inching closer to match the low volume Jeno was speaking in. 

“Are you kidding? Of course!” And it was really nobody’s business the way more air seemed to suddenly flow into Jeno’s lungs. “She actually wants you to stay for dinner tonight, if that’s okay with you?” Jaemin said while absentmindedly passing him the water bottle one more time. 

When Jeno’s brain caught up with Jaemin’s words and resulted in another coughing fit — this time fully grasping the attention of the other boys on the table, Yangyang offering him an inhaler and Renjun stacking napkins in front of him, while Donghyuck’s voice raised when Jeno turned somewhat purple — his hands immediately grasped the open water bottle in front of him. 

It was only after downing the whole thing and a few seconds breathing normally that Jeno realized Jaemin was the only one at the table that didn’t seem disturbed in the least by the minor allergy attack, and was instead calmly resting his chin on his hand, watching Jeno get a second water bottle from Renjun with an amused smile. 

“Can you smell this?” Donghyuck inhaled deeply. Jeno would very much rather not, and unconsciously clenched his hand around the small box of Allegra in his pocket. “This, this... peculiar scent?”

“Is all this paint going straight to your brain or something?” Renjun wrinkled his nose to Donghyuck’s pleased expression. “Don’t tell me we have another shoe glue incident.” And Jeno nearly got hit by the — thankfully clean — paintbrush throw at Renjun. 

“Please don’t use the art supplies as toys,” Mr. Song didn’t even look up from his book, feet resting on top of the teacher’s desk, and raised an eyebrow when Donghyuck didn’t answer. “And I’m talking to you, Donghyuck.”

Donghyuck gave the teacher a sheepish smile, gone unnoticed. “Sorry Mr. Song! It just flew from my hand!” and to Renjun “I told you many times before that I only met Chaewon _after_ the shoe glue incident.”

“That’s irrelevant. If it’s not shoe glue or paint, what the hell are you smelling? Jeno, can you pass me that gouache pallet?” Jeno gingerly closed the lid of the pallet before passing it to Renjun, and sniffed cautiously when he thought was safe. But no, the only smells in the air were still of freshly cut wood and watered down paint. The sawdust Donghyuck failed to clean on his side of the table made Jeno sneeze five times in a row. 

“Your allergies are slowly coming up, huh?”

“Shut up, just clean all that sawdust over there and I’ll be fine.” Donghyuck grumbled but did get up to fetch a damp cloth and clean his side of the table. Jeno’s nose was still very much red, but he appreciated the gesture nonetheless. He wasn’t going to say that the sneezes were actually because he was curious about whatever smell Donghyuck was talking about, instead of their messy art table. 

“Anyway, since it’s clear that Jeno isn’t able to smell shit without dying, and you have negative emotional intelligence,” Renjun pretended to hit Donghyuck with his — most definitely full of green gouache — paintbrush, “I’m just gonna have to tell y’all.” Donghyuck inhaled deeply a second time, and Jeno felt a little bit sick for his friend’s sake. God knew how shit was the air quality inside that art classroom, since all the windows closed because of the— “AC! The wonderful, delicious smell of a working AC right when you need it the most.”

“I’m just gonna say that if the AC gives off any smell at all then there’s something really wrong with it.” Jeno shrugged when Donghyuck gave him a dirty look. “Seriously, I would know.”

Donghyuck sighed. “Renjun, get the big baby an inhaler, he’s trying to ruin the only good day I had in this school in _weeks_.” This time, it was Renjun who shrugged.

“Literally not my problem.” And whatever Donghyuck was getting ready to say in retaliation was cut off by the bell ringing. 

“Thank God it’s finally lunch time,” he said over Mr. Song’s warnings that whoever left any table in a less than pristine condition would have to clean the art supply cabinet after school “Now I can actually talk to real empathetic human beings who will share my happiness.”

Renjun snorted. “I like how you included Yangyang in that ‘real empathetic human beings’ definition.” Donghyuck raised his middle finger, already rushing out of the classroom. “Good luck with that!” Renjun hollered, and Jeno shook his head. 

“He’s just looking for trouble, though.” Renjun narrowed his eyes at that, gathering the last paintbrushes while Jeno waited in line to dump the dirty paint water in the sink. 

“And what does that mean?” Jeno shrugged, and Renjun passed him the paintbrushes so he could wash them, but stayed next to him while Jeno did so.

“You didn’t notice anything different about Hyuck today?” He smirked when Renjun’s frown deepened “Nothing at all?”

“Oh my God,” his friend’s voice was small “Did he dye his hair and we didn’t notice again?”

“Are you for real? He’d never leave us here if that was the case, there’d be too many complaints,” Renjun opened his mouth to probably agree, but Jeno didn’t give him the chance to interrupt “I’m talking about how he’s wearing his full winter uniform today. Jacket and all, even though the ACs are finally on? Isn’t that weird, kind of counterproductive? I mean, why would he do that now? The ACs are set on room temperature and all.”

A sparkle of understanding crossed Renjun’s eyes, and Jeno snickered silently. His friend looked around the classroom before leaning closer to Jeno and whispering in a conspiratorial tone “You think it’s a prank? Hey,” a sharp intake of breath “You think Jaemin and Yangyang are in it too?”

Renjun was honestly too sharp, Jeno thought to himself, putting the paintbrushes over the counter to let them dry. And to think Jaemin and Yangyang were part of the prank as well? Jeno would have never guessed anything close to that, had Jaemin not given him a heads up the night before. He also decidedly ignored how his stomach jumped at the way Renjun seemed to be thinking about Jaemin enough to bring him up so easily in regular conversation.

“I’m actually quite sure they are. I just don’t know what it is exactly yet, just that it’ll probably get people’s attention.”

They both pondered in comfortable silence as they walked down the stairs and through the long corridor towards the cafeteria. “You think Donghyuck’s gonna throw his winter jacket on the buffet food or something?” Renjun’s tone was so serious that Jeno had to laugh, picturing the navy zip-up floating in the container with the soup of the day. 

“No I think he’s—” someone bumped on Jeno’s shoulder as soon as he opened the doors to the cafeteria, rushing towards a crowd of students right in the middle of the room, phone raised high with the camera app open. “Do you think... Do you think they’ve started the prank?” Jeno’s tone was slightly fearful and Renjun cringed, but neither of them needed to say anything else because Donghyuck’s voice could be overheard coming from the middle of the crowd. 

“It’s our right!” and some students echoed the thought. Renjun covered his face with both hands for a second before grabbing Jeno’s sleeve.

“Listen, I think we should just leave the cafeteria right now because I don’t think I’ll survive the embarrassment of whatever it is that he’s doing.”

“Oh yeah, you won’t,” came Chenle’s excited voice from behind them “Jisung’s already sent me three pictures and a video from when they climbed on top of the table and started stripping.”

“I’m sorry, when who did what?”

“It’s your right to step down from there!” and that was most definitely Mark Lee “This is not how things should be done!”

“We need to be heard! The administration needs to listen to the voice of the students!” Donghyuck retaliated, and the crowd around them whooped loudly, some raising fists along with their phones as if it was a street protest. 

“Jeno, it’s our chance to leave and pretend we never knew them.” Renjun looked constipated, but at that point Jeno already his camera app open. They exchanged a short glance. Renjun groaned, head hanging low, and Chenle gave him a few reassuring pats. 

“Come on, Injun. It’s for posterity.” Jeno pleaded.

“I don’t think I’m gonna survive until then with you guys as friends,” but that sounded like a win to both Jeno’s and Chenle’s ears, so they dragged a very unenthusiastic Renjun to the very front of the crowd. 

And here was the thing; Donghyuck had done his fair share of embarrassing stuff throughout the decade Jeno knew him. When he thought nobody was looking. When he knew everybody was looking, when he wanted everybody to look. So at the tender age of seventeen, there already wasn’t much his best friend could do that would surprise or embarrass Jeno anymore. He couldn’t speak for Renjun, though, who only knew Donghyuck for the better half of the last three years, and looked absolutely horrified by Chenle’s side. Because at that very moment, Donghyuck was standing on top of a cafeteria metal table, barefoot, wearing a neon yellow biker short and a white crop top with the words ‘FOR A/Cs’ poorly written in red ink, ‘ _students for change_ ’ scribbled across his right arm and ‘ _in the uniform code_ ’ across his left. Jeno took a picture with flash. 

“Nobody’s gonna listen to you like that!” The class president hollered. 

“I think we’re all gathered here because we share the same opinion! We can’t sit around and patiently wait! If we want change, we must be the change!” The crowd erupted in cheers, only riling Donghyuck up. Jeno thought his friend had finally, absolutely lost his mind, and started recording.

It was also then that Jeno took notice of the two figures standing on each side of Donghyuck, also barefoot, wearing neon biker shorts of different colors, and bearing the same scribbles on both arms. The only difference — other than Yangyang’s color of choice being red and Jaemin’s color of choice being pink — was the content of their t-shirts. While Jaemin was wearing a black graphic tee with the word’s ‘THANK GOD’ in white over some rather satanic drawings, Yangyang had on a button down full of colorful 3D exclamation points. 

“This is the best thing I’ve seen this whole month,” Chenle whispered to Jeno “It’s so much much better live than in pictures too.”

See, Jeno was totally, one hundred percent ready to cringe at Donghyuck. He was not, though, prepared to cringe at Donghyuck _and_ the two new additions to their friend group coordinating a ‘THANK GOD FOR A/Cs!!!!!’ protest during lunch time. He was also not ready to make eye contact with Jaemin through the lens of his phone camera, and was not ready for the wink the neon-pink clad boy sent his way. Jeno absentmindedly wondered if he’d have to edit it out of that particular video later, with the way he almost let his phone fall at that, but Mark Lee was going off again at his protesting friends, and he needed it on tape for future blackmailing. He wondered how long it would take for hall monitors and teachers to come and break that whole thing off, and if he’d have time to grab lunch before classes resumed.

“The only thing you gotta change is out of these ridiculous clothes before the principal gets here!”

“He needs to see it!” Donghyuck raised his arms to a T position, aligning the scribbled message as the crowd around them chanted ‘He needs to see it! He needs to see it!’. Renjun, still horrified, elbowed Chenle so he would stop chanting along, and Jeno thought he was having a fever dream. 

“I’m going to give you five seconds to come down!” Mark Lee inched forward, breaking into the sacred bubble the audience had made around the three protesters, and Jeno stopped recording, suddenly hit by a very particular kind of bad feeling. “Five! Four!”

“You’d never do anything, Mark Lee,” Donghyuck laughed, and by his tone Jeno thought the stare-off didn’t seem like it had anything to do with the ridiculous impromptu protest going on in the middle of the cafeteria, and he was only able to hear the second part because he had front row seats to that disaster. “You know you’re too much of a coward.”

“We’ll see about that,” the class president growled, and there was a second of absolute silence, or at least to Jeno that’s how it felt like. He glanced towards Jaemin, utterly still next to Donghyuck, jaw set but shoulders relaxed, simply staring down at Mark Lee. It was in the split second where Jaemin narrowed his eyes that Jeno pushed his phone against Chenle’s chest and jumped into the hell breaking loose in front him. 

There were hands pushing Jeno, and there were hands pulling Jeno, and he had no idea who were the people over him. The only thing he did know was that Mark Lee had forcefully pulled Donghyuck’s shin off the table, and they were both on the floor, and Jaemin had jumped down at Mark Lee, and Yukhei had rushed in at the same time as Jeno to pull them all apart. 

In the past ten seconds, though, someone had managed to punch Jeno on the shoulder and then on the cheek, and if at first he tried to break his friends’ fight, now the only thing he wanted was to hit that person (people?) back square in the face. Someone kicked Jeno’s thigh, and he rolled off someone else’s back, ready to punch whatever he could hit of the person who kicked him, but he fell flat on his ass and was suddenly dragged back and away from the fight by his armpits. 

“Are you fucking out of your mind?!” Renjun squatted in front of him, grabbing his chin when Jeno tried to look around to see whether the fight was over or not. Jeno flinched. A point between his left cheekbone and jaw was positively on fire, and there’d probably be a nasty bruise blooming soon. He grabbed Renjun’s wrist to push it off his face, but Renjun tightened his grip, still talking. “What the fuck were you thinking over there and what the fuck just happened,” a deep breath “And most importantly why the fuck it happened?”

Jeno groaned at the pressure on his bruise and Renjun promptly let go. Not because he suddenly noticed he was hurting Jeno, but because Mr. Byun squatted next to him, and put a heavy hand on Jeno’s shoulder. He flinched again. “These are some of the things he’ll be answering at the principal’s office.”

“Sorry.” Jaemin swung his legs back and forth, occasionally kicking the tabletop and rattling the band-aid containers. Jeno’s head perked up, surprised by the how loud the voice sounded, compared to the previous comfortable silence. 

“For what?” Jaemin vaguely gestured to the ice pack against Jeno’s cheekbone, the patch on his shoulder, the gauze wrapping his left heel. Jeno shook his head slightly. “You weren’t the asshole who did this. There’s nothing to apologize.” More kicking to the tabletop. Jaemin still looked distressed, and Jeno sighed. “You look worse than I do. I really don’t know what you’re apologizing about.” And Jeno wasn’t sure if that was the right thing to say in the situation they were in, but Jaemin only grumbled and looked away, kicking the tabletop one last time. 

That still was the truth. While Jeno only had an ugly bruise on his cheek and his heel kind of hurt when he stepped in a certain way, Jaemin’s bottom lip was busted and there was a rather big bruise still blooming on his chin, nasty looking scratches on the base of his neck, and the skin of his knuckles were kind of bloody before being wrapped up. Jeno wanted to laugh, but he figured it wasn’t time for that, with Jaemin acting all serious and gloomy. 

There were a couple more seconds of complete silence, and Jeno knew they should be leaving the nurse’s office soon, but he wanted to wait until Jaemin got over whatever was troubling him to get up and leave, and hopefully that would be before Donghyuck and Mark were released from the principal’s office and made their way there. 

Jeno had been the first one to go in and out of the principal’s office, and didn’t even look at whoever was in line to go in after him. He could only feel how tense the guys in the corridor were, and how suffocating their silence was, and just headed straight down the hallway towards the nurse’s office — also, if he looked over to see who was there, he might want to try figuring out who the hell had managed to punch him, and start another fight right by the principal’s door. The nurse had clicked her tongue when he opened the door, and despite sounding very displeased when asking how many more students would stop there after Jeno, she didn’t lecture him at all. 

Yukhei and — surprisingly to Jeno, because he hadn’t seen them getting into the fight — Yangyang, Jungwoo and Hendery all stopped by shortly to get some bandages and wounds cleaned up, but left as soon as the nurse dismissed them. Jeno sat still on one of the plastic chairs, leaving the beds empty for the other guys to get treated. It felt a bit weird how nobody really talked, or made eye contact. Jeno was getting antsy in his seat. 

It took longer for Jaemin to show up after Hendery, and he did so when Jeno was already feeling ready to leave. But Jaemin was the first one to look Jeno in the eyes in that stuffy room, and for the first time in this short week they knew each other, Jaemin was almost properly wearing his winter uniform, so Jeno felt like he should stay a bit longer. 

And that he did, and also stayed long after the nurse announced she was going to make her lunch break, even if they had signed permission slips already, and were free to leave. But so did Jaemin. They had made eye contact in silence for long enough for it to get weird, and Jeno had looked away once Jaemin started swinging his legs while sitting on the bed and accidentally hit the table. 

“I told you it would be a prank. It was supposed to be funny, something lighthearted, just a bit shocking,” Jaemin sighed “I guess I’m sorry that it made you want to see it, and that it made you end up getting dragged into... whatever that was.”

Jeno hummed, looked up at Jaemin again. “It’s okay. I feel like it was worth it getting a picture of you three in tight biker shorts like some skinny Power Rangers, or something.” Jaemin finally gave him a half smile, but quickly raised a hand to his mouth at the little sting of pain from the cut on his bottom lip. 

“I think I’d punch you right now if my hands weren’t fucked up.” Jeno chuckled.

“That’s alright, someone beat you to it,” he lifted the pack of ice away from his face for a second, pointing to his cheek. Jaemin shook his head and lightly kicked Jeno’s knee. The comfortable silence was back, but Jeno didn’t know how to bring up the fact that they should probably be leaving the nurse’s office. He really didn’t want to stay long enough until Donghyuck and Mark got there, and didn’t want to stay enough to see what would happen without the nurse’s supervision, and didn’t want to be dragged a second time to the principal’s office that day. “What do you think is gonna happen to both of them?” The names went unsaid, but Jaemin knew who Jeno was referring to, and shrugged.

“Principal Kim said I was literally this close” he dramatically put his fingers together “to being suspended, and I was the last one to leave. So my guess is that they’re each getting a couple of days of suspension and some detention, but it’s all gonna depend on how they tell the story.”

“Donghyuck might get more than just a couple of days, then.” Jaemin chuckled.

“True. I got out with another four days of detention, but that’s quite alright I think, given, you know,” he gestured around, and then to the protest scribbles still somewhere on his arm, under the thick wool of their winter uniform sweater. “What did you get?”

Jeno coughed lightly before standing up, trying his best to cover up his smile. Now it sounded like they were trading assorted candies or something, instead of talking about suspension and detention, and it only made the situation feel even more surreal. Jeno turned to open the door, poorly concealing his laughter while Jaemin called for him and followed Jeno out of the room. 

“I’m serious! It can’t have been that bad, right? You were the least guilty out of us!” Jaemin grabbed Jeno’s elbow, and promptly let go when Jeno suddenly sneezed. “Can’t you tell me at all? I’m gonna see you in detention anyway!”

Jeno looked away, putting both hands inside his pockets and fiddling with the nurse’s permission slip while he walked back to his classroom. Jaemin was looking at him intently, eyes narrowed, slowly walking up the stairs by Jeno’s side. Jeno made eye contact with him for a split second and sneezed again, mumbling something under his breath. 

“What? I didn’t catch that,” and Jeno was trying really, really hard not to laugh again once they got to the top of the stairs. So he turned around to face Jaemin.

“You won’t see me there because I’m not getting detention at all.” And took advantage of the two seconds of Jaemin’s dumbstruck expression to book it down the hallway towards the classroom. 

“Lee Jeno!” Jaemin shouted and some teacher shushed loudly from inside one of the classrooms, and Jeno couldn’t stop laughing until he closed the door of his own behind him. 

_how’s prison going for you_

**some of us have detention and can’t use their cellphone to answer messages, mr. lee jeno lee**

Jeno chuckled quietly, letting go of his phone for a second to reach inside the fridge and pour a bit of lemonade on a cup.

_stop being salty. didn’t you say i was the least guilty? it would be weird if they punished me then_

**i said u were the least guilty not that u weren’t guilty at all >:(**

_don’t be like that. it’s not like you need company in there. aren’t all our friends in detention too?_

He watched the typing bubble go up and down a few times, leaning on the kitchen counter and pretending to not get anxious. 

**yeah but :(**

**maybe i just wanted u here**

“Darling, are you alright?” His mom asked from upstairs.

“Yeah!” Jeno shouted back, cursing at the — probably now cracked — acrylic cup and all the sweet iced lemonade spilled on the floor, the liquid quickly inching towards where his phone landed “Just peachy! Sorry for that!” And scrambled to salvage his phone from any more disasters, a solid stream of curses still falling out of his mouth while cleaning the floor. 

The screen lit up again and Jeno all but threw the cracked cup and dirty rag into the sink to unlock the notification, blush not diminishing in the least even if the message this time was from Yangyang and to their group chat.

 **yangx2:**  
Alright fellas so Saturday 

**injun:**  
??  
aren’t you in detention right now?

 **yangx2:**  
That’s irrelevant  
So Saturday 

**injun:**  
how can that be irrelevant?  
you’re gonna end up getting extra detention.

 **jeno**  
what’s on Saturday?

 **nana:**  
yang got us invited to some party on saturday to celebrate!!!

 **duckie:**  
first of all excuse you i was the one who got us invited  
second of all yeah what jaemin said

 **injun:**  
aren’t literally all of you in detention right now

 **jeno:**  
i’m not

 **nana:**  
jeno’s not :D

 **duckie:**  
jeno isn’t

 **injun:**  
yeah okay.  
who the hell is the teacher in charge today though.  
you’re all just chilling on your phones like that.

 **duckie:**  
three guesses, let’s hear it

 **injun:**  
mr. choi?

 **nana:**  
dididididin we got a winner!!

 **yangx2:**  
You’re all going off topic though  
So Saturday?

 **jeno:**  
yeah i guess?  
what are they celebrating?

 **injun:**  
is it someone’s birthday? i’m not going if it’s the birthday of someone i don’t know, just saying.

 **duckie:**  
shut the fuck up injun you’d go regardless  
but no we’re actually celebrating the equinox and the change to mf summer uniforms finally  
jungwoo invited so we better not let him down

 **injun:**  
wait wasn’t he one of the seniors you punched during the fight yesterday?

 **duckie:**  
exactly so that’s why we better not fucking let him down

 **jeno:**  
????  
you punched jungwoo too??  
donghyuck???  
??

Starring at the mirror, Jeno slowly turned his head side to side, up and down. The bruise on his cheek was turning a weird shade of yellow that was only slightly less nasty than the absolute dark purple of the first and second days. The only good thing it had brought him was that now his parents filled the freezer with packs of ice of various sizes that he used until he fell asleep — not only on his cheek, but under both knees, on his shoulders, elbows and belly, since Jeno couldn’t turn on the fan or open the window anymore if he actually wanted to sleep. 

Not that his mom particularly encouraged fighting, but Jeno hadn’t been suspended, wasn’t even given detention, and after he told her and his dad over dinner what had actually happened, she didn’t bring it up again and just left an assortment of newly bought face creams in Jeno’s bathroom. He didn’t feel comfortable with how sticky they were, and how he seemed to sweat more after applying them, but with the addition of the ice packs it was slightly more bearable. And so Jeno uncapped one of the four tubes and leaned closer to the mirror to apply the mixture to his bruise. 

He knew he was being a baby about it. Absolutely over dramatic. It did sting a bit in the nurse’s office that Wednesday, but a couple of hours later there was only a dull ache that soon faded. The thing was that every time he caught sight of his reflection and the ugly bruise, his blood boiled and he felt like it should hurt more than it actually did. But maybe that was more because Jeno wanted to leave a matching one on the face of whoever punched him than anything else. He also bailed on Yukhei and their basketball games on both days following the cafeteria disaster because of that, since Jeno hadn’t yet ruled him out of the people involved in the fight who could’ve been responsible for his face having four different extra colors right now. 

Plopping down on his bed, Jeno promptly arranged various ice packs all over himself before settling on a starfish position. He didn’t want to mull over the cafeteria fight, not even because it was all utterly ridiculous, but because it had also been dumb as hell, and they were all laughing about it and truly over it the very next morning, so there’d be no use being so upset about a punch, though Jeno couldn’t help himself. He should in fact be slightly impressed with the person’s aim, particularly since he bruise was an almost perfect circle dead center on his left cheek, starting right under his eye. Jeno also felt like all that had happened before and after sort of made up for it. He smiled thinking about the video and pictures stored in his phone of ridiculous neon shorts and satanic shirts and painted arms, of a quiet nurse’s office and white walls and a concerned look under a shock of blue fringe, of playful banter and reassuring messages and night calls, of Jaemin. 

But that was an even worse train of though to mull over, so Jeno quickly shook his head and rearranged the fallen pack of ice. 

His phone lit up on the nightstand, and he could see Donghyuck’s name on the screen, so Jeno just sighed while the screen went black again. Between being given the cold shoulder by Renjun for getting into a fight in front of the whole school, not playing basketball with Yukhei after class, and not following Jaemin home for games, Jeno wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he felt a teeny tiny bit lonely, and missed just walking into Donghyuck’s house after school and wasting time until dinner. But it was his friend’s full fault for getting suspended and getting grounded, so Jeno smiled and reassured Donghyuck’s parents that he wouldn’t cross the street to their home until they declared Donghyuck was free from his period of ‘introspective reflection’. He suspected it wouldn’t be any time soon, though, given how Yangyang told Jeno over lunch that on the first day of detention — with Donghyuck not even showing up in uniform, which he’d argue there was no point wearing one since he wasn’t allowed to go to classes in the morning, anyway — his best friend had to be put in a separate classroom because of an almost fight breaking again between him and the class president — Mark Lee having shown up in full uniform despite being suspended as well. And maybe Jeno agreed with Donghyuck’s parents and supported any extended period of ‘introspective reflection’, but he also hadn’t seen his best friend in two full days, so when his phone lit up again in the nightstand, Jeno figured the least he could do was answering his messages. 

Except that the screen was lit up not by another message from Donghyuck, but by the name Na Jaemin plastered front and center over it, and Jeno’s heart did a weird painful loop on his chest before the phone was against his ear, fallen packs of ice forgotten. 

“Hey,” Jeno sat up straight.

“Hi,” there was some rustling sound “Were you sleeping already? Sorry for calling so late.” 

Jeno swallowed before answering. “No, that’s fine. What’s up?” And Jaemin took a few moments to answer, a sound of a door closing. 

“Nothing, really. I just didn’t see you today, so I guess I wanted to catch up.” It sounded like a question, though, and Jeno fell silent. 

Now, there were many ways of answering. But since they were all variants of ‘nothing happened’ and ‘it was just another regular Friday, you know’ and Jeno for some unknown reason wanted to hear Jaemin’s voice for just a bit longer, he stayed quiet and waited for his mind to get out of overdrive for long enough so he could think like a regular human being again. He heard Jaemin’s airy chuckle at the silence, and coughed lightly a few times. 

“Sorry, I think I sounded like a dad. That was a weird question. It’s not like every day there’s something worth telling like on Wednesday.” Jeno laughed, reaching for the water bottle on his nightstand. 

“Yeah, true.” He positively inhaled half the water bottle to keep from coughing again. “But what happened during lunch? Yangyang and Renjun didn’t know where you were either.” 

Jaemin hummed. “Hyuck didn’t have Jungwoo’s number so he texted me to go get it, to talk about tomorrow. Yukhei and the rest of the student council were with him, though, and they kind of kept me for longer than I expected,” He sighed “Apparently an underclassman posted the video of the fight on Twitter and some reaction videos account retweeted it, and it’s kind of going viral, by the way. But I’m sorry I bailed on lunch.”

Jeno’s heart skipped a beat for a bit longer than usual at that, and suddenly he wondered if it was a beginning of a heart attack, and if he should hang up on Jaemin and call an ambulance. But he had apparently only been holding his breath for too long, so once he released it his heart was beating just fine. Jeno finished the rest of the water bottle and hoped that it didn’t sound like he was dying over the phone, because that’s surely how it sounded to Jeno’s own ears. 

“What was that?” Jaemin sounded concerned “You good?”

Jeno cleared his throat. “Yeah, no, totally. I’m good. Just, you know,” Jeno himself didn’t know, and gestured vaguely around as if Jaemin could see it, more ice packs falling from the bed. “I guess allergies, and all that. The air quality lately isn’t all that good.” There was a moment of silence before Jeno heard Jaemin snickering, and when he spoke again there was a distinct smile in his voice. 

“Yeah, allergies. I get it,” he laughed lightly “So tell me, we’re on for tomorrow, right?”

Jeno inhaled deeply again, glad for some semblance of normalcy. “Sure. I mean, I’m on, and I’m pretty sure Injun’s on for it too. It’s the three of you that we’re not too sure about.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hyuck was suspended? You have four detentions? Granted, Yangyang had only one detention, so he might be free, but Is your mom okay with you going to a party after all that?” Jaemin hummed again, more rustling.

“You’re right. I think Hyuck’s gonna sneak out, not gonna lie. He got all weird when I asked him that.” Something crossed Jeno’s mind and he put Jaemin on speaker, opening the message Donghyuck had sent him. 

“He’s a hundred percent going to sneak out. Dude basically just texted me asking how easy it is to climb up to my room, though his exact words were ‘does the back of your house still have that green wall that we used to climb a few years ago?’”

“Oh my God,” they both laughed “That’s kind of over the top. Bless him, though. Yangie got only an earful from his parents on Thursday and my mom just thinks it’s more uniform stuff related detention. I guess she’s still kind of right?” 

“No way,” Jeno smiled “She didn’t think anything of the state of your neck?”

“Guess she thought it was the kind of stuff kids are embarrassed to talk to their parents about.” Jeno could practically see Jaemin wiggling his eyebrows, and a blush spread through his face and down his neck and he suddenly scrambled to change the topic. 

“Cool,” and it was definitely not cool at all, with Jeno’s voice breaking in the middle of the word like that “but your hands? All bandaged and stuff?”

“I told her a couple of days ago about the woodwork our year is doing in arts, so maybe she thinks it’s that? I don’t know, I can be clumsy too,” Jaemin still sounded like he was smiling “But I’m not sure. Mom hasn’t asked, and I’m not about to just tell.” There was suddenly a loud sound over the phone, and Jeno heard muffled ‘no mom it’s nothing really it’s about my friend’s mom’ and ‘yeah thank you I’ll bring it downstairs in a sec’ and ‘I swear I’m hanging up, it’s Jeno, just give me a second’, as if Jaemin’s hand was covering the microphone slot. 

“Almost busted,” Jeno said when he heard a door closing again.

“Shut up,” but there was no bite in Jaemin’s answer, and the smile was back to his voice. “Listen, today I’m on dish washing duty so I gotta go bring some stuff down and hang up in a second but,” Jaemin sounded breathless as if he was already running down the stairs and suddenly paused, lowering his voice to an almost whisper “The party tomorrow?” A short laugh “I actually called you just to ask that.”

The loop was no longer made just by Jeno’s heart but also his lungs and stomach too. He gripped the phone a little bit tighter. “You could have just said something in the group chat?”

Jaemin clicked his tongue. “I know their answers already but I want to be there with you. You going?”

The string of sneezes that followed was completely involuntary, but Jeno’s eyes still watered, and he was breathless once again, clutching the phone to his ear with one hand while the other held his water bottle, running towards the bathroom sink to fill it up, sneezes unrelenting. When the coughs came along, Jeno barely heard Jaemin’s airy chuckle at the other end of the line. 

“Glad it’s a yes,” and the line went silent so Jeno put the phone down, struggling to drink what he could of the water without coughing it out through his nose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whew it’s been over a month but i’m not giving up on this thing!! my original plan was to finish it in time to post a christmas wip but hah yeah that didn’t happen
> 
> anyway i hope you enjoyed this chapter and the latest shenanigans they’re getting into!! next up is a party to celebrate the equinox, let’s see how jeno (and his allergies :’) ) deal with it
> 
> i’d love to know what you think about this chapter! talk to me about it on [twitter](https://twitter.com/mxtchxlatte) or leave a comment — either way i’ll absolutely love you forever <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Between re-enacting a B-grade teenage spy movie and discussing the morality of throwing a party in the apartment of a friend that is out of town, Jeno didn’t think his worst problem of the night would be neither of those things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you were here initially for the fluff only i’m so sorry about the chaos that is jeno’s mind :’) i have faith that our boy is gonna get over it

“Okay, help me recap the plan to see if there’s anything missing,” Donghyuck whispered, pacing up and down the room. Jeno sat cross-legged on his own bed, watching Donghyuck move around with a carefully blank expression. 

Sometimes, things would happen around Donghyuck — most often, they would happen _because_ of Donghyuck — and the way he’d react to them — _work around them_ , Donghyuck always argued — would make Jeno wonder just why the hell that was the person he chose to be his best friend. And that evening was a prime example of it. 

“Don’t you think this is going— I don’t know, that this is a bit over the top?”

“Shush! I said recap, not whine,” Donghyuck huffed, still pacing “We don’t have enough time for that. Yang’s gonna text us soon.”

Jeno closed his eyes and mentally counted to ten. He’d been since early that morning trying to dissuade Donghyuck out of said _‘plan’_ , but some twelve hours later, he’d all but ran out of rational arguments, and was seriously considering entertaining Donghyuck and maybe saying yes to whatever his friend’s mind had conjured this time. After all, apparently it was a three part ordeal that Donghyuck had already put in motion since two days ago, and maybe Jeno had never been given the chance to refuse helping from the very start. 

“So?” Donghyuck looked at him expectantly, and Jeno opened his eyes just to roll them. 

“So Yangyang is gonna text us when he’s about ten minutes away, and while I say goodbye to my parents, you’re gonna go through my dad’s office’s window and climb down the green wall, because that leads directly into my backyard, since your parents will probably be checking the CCTV footage installed on your front door, that also shows the entire front of my house,” Jeno could already feel a headache coming “We’re also gonna trespass into my neighbor’s garden and walk all the way to the front his garage — and you better pray to the universe that he won’t be in his living room when we do it — and stay hidden until Yangyang drives by and we get into his car, successfully avoiding being caught by your dumb cameras.”

“And then it’ll be like I never left my room to begin with!” He sounded entirely too pleased, as if even when hearing Jeno recite the plan out loud there were still no sirens going off in his head, saying just how much of a Bad Idea the whole thing was. 

“And then it’ll be like you never left your room,” Jeno repeated, albeit less enthusiastically.

Donghyuck nodded to himself, dragging Jeno’s chair away from the desk and finally sitting down. “So then we just need to repeat it all again in reverse to my house after we get back from the party.”

And that was the part that made even less sense to Jeno. Light parkour and trespassing to avoid being caught by a CCTV? _Fun_. Would actually make him feel like he’s in some B-grade teenage spy movie. He could get behind that. But doing it a second time, at ass o’clock in the morning, while he and Donghyuck are probably tipsy or absurdly tired from dancing? It was no doubt recipe for disaster. Not that Jeno would get in trouble with whatever the outcome was — unless something got broken while Donghyuck climbed up the wall (or Donghyuck got broken, for that matter), since _Jeno_ had permission to go to the party — but Donghyuck would be in so much shit if they got caught that he just might stay grounded until college. 

Because, see, Donghyuck’s plan wasn’t just some light parkour and trespassing; it was some elaborate dramatic manipulation that started the day he got suspended from fighting in the cafeteria. If that Wednesday Donghyuck had been honestly sulking when he locked himself inside his bedroom straight after dinner, due to the long lecture Mr. and Mrs. Lee had given him, then the following two days were already part of his grand scheme. So when on Thursday Jungwoo mentioned the equinox party, Donghyuck went home right after detention and locked himself in his room again, only briefly unlocking the door to get something for dinner. After repeating it on Friday, he chanced it wouldn’t be weird to also do so on Saturday — so after getting a dinner plate from his mom, Donghyuck locked his room one more time and climbed down the window, trespassing two neighboring houses to cross the street (and trespass one more) before getting to Jeno’s backyard, climbing up the green wall and sending a cryptic text message while perched on the office’s window ledge, almost scaring the everliving lights out of Jeno. 

So there they were, discussing in hushed tones how that gigantic brewing disaster would go, because Jeno’s parents were still downstairs and absolutely aware that Donghyuck was supposed to be grounded, and definitely not supposed to be in Jeno’s room right before leaving for a party. 

“Look, Hyuck, I just think that—” Jeno was interrupted by both of their phones buzzing at the same time. 

“Yang is ten minutes away,” Donghyuck sounded slightly breathless, and honestly Jeno would be too, because that plan was madness _even_ if by the morning Donghyuck got back to his own bed with all bones still in their right places. “We gotta go, now,” and so Jeno was rightfully confused when instead of urging him to go downstairs distract his parents, Donghyuck actually opened Jeno’s wardrobe, and started rummaging through it.

“Shouldn’t we get going?” 

Donghyuck huffed, slipping into one of Jeno’s black jeans. “You didn’t seriously think I’d go out in pajamas, did you?” For the first time in the ten minutes since Donghyuck slipped through his window Jeno noticed that his friend was actually wearing a much too thin white tee and plaid much too short shorts, that were in no way party — or public — appropriate. 

“We’re going through all this trouble already, why didn’t you just come here dressed?” And if Donghyuck wasn’t slipping his head through one of Jeno’s nicer dark t-shirts, he was certain his friend would’ve rolled his eyes at him. 

“Listen, you know the one thing I don’t do is my own laundry,” he closed one of the wardrobe doors to look at himself in the mirror “How would I explain to mom that one Sunday morning I was suddenly inspired to do it? What about when I have to hang them up? What’s she gonna think about one going out outfit drying in the middle of my uniforms, somehow coincidently worn the week I was grounded?” He turned back to Jeno, an eyebrow raised as he closed the other wardrobe door “I’m not taking any more chances.”

And that was actually the most sensible thing Donghyuck had said all day, but Jeno wasn’t about to admit it out loud. Instead, he got up to open the bedroom door. “If you mess up this shirt, I’ll rip your head off. Also, try to not get too much mud on my pants on your way down there,” Donghyuck nodded, and Jeno opened the door, mouthing a ‘good luck’ to which Donghyuck nodded again, though visibly more nervous. Jeno sent a quick prayer to whoever might be listening and made his way downstairs, trying to make his footsteps louder than Donghyuck’s on the corridor’s carpet. 

“Hey mom? Dad?” He peeked into the living room “My friends texted me that they’re nearby, so I think I’m gonna get going?”

“Got your phone and wallet?” His dad asked from the sofa, while his mom got up to pat Jeno’s hair and kiss his cheek.

“Try to be back by 1AM the latest, okay?” There was a muffled _thump_ , loud enough to be heard in the living room, and his mom whipped her head around. Jeno faked a few loud coughs. 

“Yeah, yeah, I got it, and I will,” a couple of seconds of silence. He could only hope that Donghyuck hadn’t dived head first onto the ground and wasn’t currently bleeding to death on his backyard. Jeno’s mom patted his head one more time and he untangled himself before she could kiss him again, heading towards the door. 

“Take a few tablets with you for your allergies honey!” She shouted when he got to the door. Jeno raised his wallet, as if to say they were in there, keys jingling in the lock. 

Once on the street, Jeno looked around for a second before turning right, quickly putting his back against his neighbor’s garage wall when he reached the few plant vases that Donghyuck said didn’t show up in the CCTV anymore. Running excuse after excuse through his mind until he reached the back of the garage, where a low brick fence separated Jeno’s house from the neighbor’s garden, he squatted by the shadows and picked up his phone.

“Damn, you still got here first,” Jeno’s blood ran cold when Donghyuck whispered right by his ear.

“Please, please never do this again,” he had to swallow his heart back from where it was lodged somewhere in his throat. “I literally almost just let out the most embarrassing scream ever.”

Donghyuck snorted. “I’ll tie some bells on my shoes next time.”

“Congrats on not dying, though,” Jeno whispered while their phones buzzed and Donghyuck unlocked the notification. Yangyang was a minute away. 

“That? That was nothing. Remember the summer my room was being renovated and I had that insane curfew? Well the guest room’s window is not right next to a tree like mine is, so I would take—”

“I really don’t need the details. Let’s go,” besides, Jeno could picture whatever had happened with weird clarity, considering how their neighbor’s then six-year-old kid had nicknamed Donghyuck ‘flying squirrel’.

They slowly made their way towards the other side of the garage, and glued their backs against the house. Jeno lowered himself and peeked into the first of the two windows. 

“Clear,” he stage-whispered, half laughing, and Donghyuck lightly kicked his butt, also suppressing a laugh. “We’re good,” he whispered again by the second window, just as a dark green car rolled to a stop by the curb. They gestured wildly for Yangyang to unlock the car doors, and once they heard the tell-tale click, Jeno and Donghyuck half crawled, half ran across Jeno’s neighbor’s front lawn and all but threw themselves into the back seat, earning a loud groan from Renjun. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you guys?” Renjun tried asking over Jeno’s and Donghyuck’s breathless laughter. From the driver’s seat, Yangyang merely shook his head and handed Donghyuck a phone so he could put in the address of the party. 

“Hyuck is in _so_ much trouble,” Jeno heaved once they untangled themselves and sat down properly, laughter dying down “I’ve literally never been so glad I wasn’t him.”

“Now that’s just a lie,” Renjun smirked.

“You’re right,” Donghyuck huffed indignantly, lightly punching Jeno’s arm “but he’s still in serious deep shit.”

At that, Jaemin turned his head from the passenger’s seat. “What’s he up to?”

“Oh, no biggie. He’s just hella grounded and jumped through a window.”

“Hello? Stop talking about me as if I wasn’t here?” Jaemin pushed Donghyuck’s head back when he leaned to stand in front of Jeno. 

“And he did it twice. It’s gonna be four times total before morning, apparently.”

“I’ve never seen anyone do that in real life. You gotta be clinically insane.” Renjun was shaking his head, though his tone sounded a bit in awe. 

“You know what?” Donghyuck leaned his head against the back of the passenger’s seat, and stared off the window on Renjun’s side “Sometimes I actually think that too,” and at the lack of denial, the car exploded in more questions about the details of Donghyuck’s absurd plan. Only once Jeno was unable to jump in to make fun of Donghyuck’s answers, when he slightly choked on air after properly making eye contact with Jaemin, because, holy shit, was that _eyeliner_? Jeno felt the temperature of his face and neck rise slightly, and thanked the universe that it was probably too dark in the car for anyone to notice. Though with the way Jaemin smiled at him before turning his attention back to Donghyuck, Jeno wasn’t so sure anymore, and thus the temperature of his face rose another few degrees. 

They all collectively quieted down when Yangyang made a left turn that gave them prime view of an apartment at the end of the street that was either the set for a Star Wars spin-off movie, or was currently on fire. Blue fire. And then orange, and green, and flickering purple. 

Yangyang slowed down, and Donghyuck leaned over Jeno, pushing his head between the driver and passenger seats to have a better view of the lights. “Man, this party is gonna be so sick.”

“You’re saying that _that’s_ Jungwoo’s apartment?” Renjun rolled down the window to watch the changing lights. Jeno grimaced when he recognized the street they were on, and worse, the apartment complex they were facing. 

“No, uh,” and now four pairs of eyes were staring at him. Jeno scratched the back of his neck “That’s... that’s Doyoung’s apartment.” 

A gasp.

“No way!” Now Donghyuck leaned farther over Jeno, all the way over Renjun, to try looking out of the left window. His knees were digging on Jeno’s thigh, and Jeno cursed out loud, but Donghyuck was too focused on the light show “You’re saying we got invited to a party in Kim Doyoung’s apartment?!”

Renjun pushed Donghyuck away from the window. “Get off me, would you,” he struggled a bit, but with Jeno’s help, they were able to make Donghyuck sit back down “And that makes sense, doesn’t it? I don’t think Doyoung would let his little brother throw a party for a bunch of high schoolers at their parents house.”

“I don’t think Doyoung would let Jungwoo throw a party at all,” Jeno muttered, and it was all silent again, four people waiting for him to elaborate on that. Jeno sighed. “Listen, so, this week right? Doyoung created a Twitter account—”

“ _The_ Doyoung?”

“Kim Doyoung using social media?”

“The fuck, give us his username!”

“—and he’s not very used to it yet, so he’s kinda tweeting like diary entries—”

“I _need_ to see that, I—”

“Can you guys,” Jeno raised his voice “shut up for a second?” He made sure to look each of them in the eyes as he said it, and the car was silent again. Jeno clicked his tongue. “Alright, yeah. He has a Twitter account now, but someone created it for him. And I know that person is called Jaehyun, and I know it was because Doyoung lost a bet, and I know that because, _as I was saying_ ,” Jeno looked around again, a bit dramatically, but his friends didn’t show any signs of interrupting again, even if Renjun did raise an eyebrow “He tweets like he’s a fifth grader writing on a diary. And because of _that_ ,” he paused a second time, trying to build up some suspense “I know that he’s out of the city for the weekend, _and_ that he left his apartment keys with Johnny.” 

“Not Jungwoo,” Yangyang stated, though it sounded like a question. Absolute silence. Renjun pursed his lips. 

“Well, maybe he left his keys with Johnny so he could give them to Jungwoo?”

“Not a chance,” Jeno breathed a laugh “he complained in three separate tweets about how Johnny probably wasn’t going to go to his apartment at all and his plants would all die because of that.”

“So what you’re saying, is that Jungwoo is throwing a party in his brother’s apartment without him knowing?” Jeno nodded. Silence. 

“Oh my God,” Donghyuck started, sounding lost in thought “I wish I had punched Jungwoo sooner. That’s fucking wild, guys,” he unlocked the door, jumping out of the car and motioning for them all to get out faster “Guys why wasn’t I friends with Jungwoo earlier? Guys? He’s gonna be fucking murdered when Doyoung comes back! Fratricide!” Jaemin and Yangyang shared a look, snickering. Donghyuck latched himself onto Jeno’s arm.

“Please, please show us his Twitter, I think I’m gonna faint if I don’t see it,” though the request sounded as dramatic as always, Donghyuck’s voice was also on the verge of hysterical, and so Jeno quickly unlocked his phone, watching Donghyuck scroll through the feed, the others huddling around them to try seeing the screen better. 

“Wow,” Jaemin whistled “The only thing missing is the ‘Dear Diary’ at the top. He even signs his name at the bottom of every tweet.”

“I think that’s my early birthday gift,” Donghyuck let go of Jeno’s arm, and skipped ahead of them, singing some nonsense melody. Jeno only shook his head and followed, choosing to not think about the many new ways this night could go wrong. Given Donghyuck’s record of weird ways in which he displayed admiration towards Doyoung, Jeno would probably have to keep an eye on his best friend, just so some of Doyoung’s possessions didn’t end up as part of the shrine in Donghyuck’s room — _memory stand_ , Donghyuck called, and _stalker mood board_ , Renjun would counter. So after Donghyuck’s weird obsession with Moon Taeil in middle school, Kim Doyoung and now Mark Lee in high school, Jeno was starting to think his friend just had a thing for people in the student council in general. “Tonight I’m gonna drink, and I’m gonna drink to that!”

“If you puke on my shirt I _will_ kill you,” Jeno had a real bad feeling about what a drunk Donghyuck inside Doyoung’s apartment would be like, and a very strong feeling that he would in a rather near future have to explain to Doyoung how and why one of his succulents ended up in Donghyuck’s bedroom. 

“So your pants are still game? Gotcha.” 

“Hyuck— No they—” But Donghyuck was already unlocking the lobby door with the code Jungwoo texted, and running up to the elevator. Jeno sighed, looking up to the half-hidden moon, and praying that he wouldn’t have to explain to his mom why one of his fancier outfits was utterly ruined. Lost in thought about the list of people he’d have to give bullshit excuses to, Jeno didn’t notice Jaemin staying behind with him, while the others crammed into the one-person elevator.

“So,” Jaemin started, both hands in his pockets, while Jeno pressed the elevator button. Jeno pretended his pulse was still normal once he noticed they were alone for the first time in three days. “Hyuck’s wearing your clothes.”

And oh, _that_ was new. Jeno’s ears were positively on fire, but he surely wasn’t going to dwell on Jaemin’s bitter tone, otherwise his whole head might just explode. He cleared his throat. 

“It’s part of his plan— The perfect crime, and everything. Not leaving clues behind, a citizen of the night— yeah,” Jeno knew he was rambling, but when he was about to make jazz hands, he cut himself short, and cleared his throat one more time. “Hyuck doesn’t want his mom to find out through suspicious laundry that he went out, so he borrowed some of my clothes.”

“Huh,” was all that Jaemin offered in response. They stood in perfect silence until the elevator got there, and only once in the shoebox that Doyoung constantly complained about, when Jeno had his left shoulder pressed against Jaemin’s right, was that a particular thought crossed Jeno’s mind that made his ears burn for a whole other reason. 

So it was on their way to the seventh floor, feeling the bass of the party through the ruffling of Jaemin’s flimsy dark blue shirt, that Jeno thought, _maybe Jaemin has a crush on Donghyuck_.

Which made total sense, if Jeno were to think about it. He just didn’t want to, not really, because just that initial thought sent a very unpleasant feeling down his spine, and he didn’t want to be gloomy at all during the equinox party. But those were facts; Jeno knew Jaemin approached Donghyuck first in that detention, weeks ago. He knew that Jaemin probably wanted to spend all his time with Donghyuck ever since, because that was exactly what Donghyuck did — until Renjun sat him down and dramatically complained that he and Jeno were starting to forget what their friend looked like. 

It made sense, when Jaemin told Jeno over chips and guacamole and greasy fingers and even greasier game controllers that he liked dating girls, but he liked dating guys a bit more. It made sense, with the way Jaemin accepted skinship from Donghyuck so easily, with how he smiled and teased him about it. It made sense, when the only times Jeno and Jaemin talked about other people, it was mainly about Donghyuck. It made sense, with the bitterness in Jaemin’s voice when he mentioned Donghyuck wearing Jeno’s clothes. Of course. Of course he was bitter about Donghyuck wearing another man’s clothes. Of course he was, and suddenly Jeno felt like an absolute loser for the conflicting thoughts he had all week, for the way his heartbeat was now tuned to Jaemin’s smile, for the way he felt something entirely too pleasant back when Jaemin confessed to liking guys, for thinking — hoping? — he might be one of them, for nitpicking all of their minimal interactions, and wondering whether Jaemin might have at some point flirted with him, when it had been so obvious that Jaemin was into Donghyuck from the very start. 

When Jaemin kept absolutely silent the whole elevator ride. When Jaemin was probably so pissed at Jeno for being close enough to the guy he liked to lend him clothes, that he couldn’t even look at or talk to Jeno. Jaemin, with tense shoulders and balled fists in pockets and set jaw, eyes focused on the unlocked door at the end of the corridor, not once turning back to see whether Jeno was following. So with prickling eyes and a weird feeling lodged in his throat, Jeno slowly left the elevator and picked up his pace, passing straight through Jaemin’s hand still opening the door. 

“Hey, Jeno, we—” but he didn’t stop when Jaemin called once, twice, and probably a third time drowned by the loud music, heading straight to where he knew Doyoung’s kitchen was. 

“J— Jeno?” Jungwoo stuttered once Jeno entered the kitchen, completely forgetting about the person he was talking to “I didn’t— I didn’t know you were— you were coming, I didn’t know you would—” and Jeno couldn’t help the half smile that crawled up his face at Jungwoo fumbling for words, so ever grateful for a distraction to the ugly feelings upsetting his stomach. He put a hand on Jungwoo’s shoulder, and the boy inhaled sharply. 

“Relax, Woo,” and now Jeno couldn’t help his laughter at all “I didn’t tell Doyoung, and I’m not going to.” From how close they were standing, every inch of that apartment crowded, Jeno could see Jungwoo staring back and forth between his eyes, gauging Jeno’s reaction. And then he sighed, relieved.

“Man, I was about to pass out, for real,” Jungwoo clapped Jeno’s back, and walked around him “Let me get you something to drink? As a thank you?” Jeno nodded, following Jungwoo further into the kitchen. 

He could have said something. He could have, and that’s all that occupied Jeno’s mind as Jungwoo handed him a maroon drink that was probably the mix of three different kinds of alcohol none of the people in that apartment could have acquired legally. He could have reassured Jaemin that there was nothing between him and Donghyuck, and that Jaemin could pursue his best friend freely. And even though Jeno laughed here and there at Jungwoo’s remarks about how Doyoung was probably going to skin him alive before telling their parents, he was running and rerunning through his mind the moment back in the elevator. How _no, relax, it was just because I’m Hyuck’s neighbor, he would’ve asked the same from anyone else_ , and _he’s actually very much single and likes guys too, but I think he must have already told you that_ , suddenly turned into _I don’t think he’s into you, so you should look for someone else_ , and _why does it have to be him_ and _what would someone else have to do to make you like them too_. Jeno suddenly shook his head, interrupting Jungwoo in the middle of an enthusiastic retelling of some time Doyoung almost got kidnapped when they were kids, and finished half of his mysterious drink in one go. 

“Hey man, calm down a bit,” Jungwoo laughed nervously “I don’t really know what people put in it, but it smells like nail polish remover and I don’t think you’re supposed to drink it this fast.”

Jeno shrugged, looking into the now empty cup. “That’s fine. I’m fine. Do you have some more?” 

Jungwoo stared at him for a second, and then at his cup. “Uh, sure?” He nodded to himself shortly and started refilling Jeno’s cup with the almost purple content of a Brita filter that was most definitely _not_ the water that jar was supposed to carry. 

The thing was, Jeno was doing just fine without drinkable nail polish, or whatever that mix was. Just peachy without the burning sensation in his throat, and the feeling that his stomach was now full of acid, and a now somewhat numb tongue. Jeno just wanted something to distract himself from whenever his thoughts strayed too close to some particular revelations tied to Jaemin that he wasn’t about to tackle in a freaking high school house party. And so he took another sip as soon as Jungwoo put the Brita down. 

A couple of senior girls stopped by shortly after, and while Jungwoo filled their cups and flirted with both, Jeno took the opportunity to properly look around for the first time since he entered the apartment, and snorted. 

God, Doyoung was _really_ going to kill Jungwoo. 

There were Christmas lights tangled with fairy lights all over Doyoung’s bigger potted plants, and colorful spotlights precariously placed on Doyoung’s tall glass table by the veranda. There was a disco ball hanging from Doyoung’s custom-made caged chandelier, all living room furniture pushed against the walls to make room for a makeshift dance floor, with Doyoung’s prized antique carpet haphazardly rolled and put between the two armchairs where all backpacks and purses were. The corridor door was also open, and Jeno hoped for Jungwoo’s sake that the only other unlocked door beyond it was of the bathroom, since there was already no protecting Doyoung’s precious ceramics, scattered across the sink and the kitchen table, full of monochrome snacks just as suspicious as the drinks. 

Jeno raised his eyebrows, because truly, he was so grateful that was not his problem, and raised the cup to his mouth one more time, before making eye contact with Jaemin. 

He didn’t fool himself into thinking Jaemin’s eyes had lit up just by finding him, because of the sheer number of light bulbs inside that apartment that were responsible for that effect. He didn’t fool himself into thinking that Jaemin smiled once they locked eyes, because Jaemin had been mid-conversation with someone, and was probably already laughing at what they had said. Actually didn’t fool himself at all, thinking that Jaemin’s step forward and raised hand were to call Jeno over, since the place was full of people from Jaemin’s class too, and that might’ve been directed to someone near Jeno. So Jeno took another sip of his drink and turned back to Jungwoo, grabbing his arm as Jaemin approached. 

“Hey, let’s dance,” another sip. Jeno watched Jungwoo say goodbye to the girls, and turn back to him with a very much confused expression. 

“You doing okay?” He held Jeno’s face with both hands, turning it side to side “You can’t be drunk already, right?” Jeno sighed, leaning his face back, out of Jungwoo’s reach.

“Yeah, I’m fine, let’s just get out of—”

“Woo!” And it was Jaemin’s voice, followed by Jaemin’s arm over Jeno’s shoulders “This is crazy, dude. Hope you get to come to school on Monday after Doyoung finds out!” Jungwoo also greeted Jaemin, laughing, and Jeno turned slightly to the newcomer, Jaemin’s face much, much closer than he initially thought, a heavy hand on Jeno’s shoulder, thumb slightly rubbing Jeno’s neck. “Why did you run off like that?” Jaemin leaned in to whisper “I wanted to drink with you.”

Jeno held his breath. What the heck. 

“Sorry,” and abruptly shrugged off Jaemin’s arm, grabbing Jungwoo’s hand and pushing through other students to get to the living room, ignoring Jungwoo’s tumbling steps and Jaemin calling his name. Again. Too much, that was too much. The side of Jeno’s neck burned with the lingering sensation of Jaemin’s thumb. Another sip. 

“The fuck man?!” Jungwoo grabbed Jeno’s hand tighter, forcing him to stop. Jeno shook his head and yanked Jungwoo forward again, now in the middle of the dance floor, and started to awkwardly move, taking another sip. Jungwoo grabbed his cup “Oh no, hell no, you’re gonna stop drinking for a sec.”

Jeno and Jungwoo had a bit of a stare down, but Jeno relented. “I told you I wanted to dance.”

“Yeah? Well that was rude as hell to Jaemin,” Jungwoo frowned “I thought you guys had become inseparable or something? What’s up with that?”

A dry laugh. “We’re not that close. The one he’s close to is Hyuck,” but Jungwoo’s frown only deepened “I’m serious!”

“Jeno, man, Yukhei’s been complaining about how you missed like, three basketball sessions in a row to play video games with Jaemin. You’ve never done that! Yukhei even misses student council meetings sometimes because he says your basketball games with him are some sacred shit!” Jeno reached for his cup, and Jungwoo raised it higher, accidentally elbowing someone, but attention still focused on Jeno “God, Doie never told me you were _such_ a lightweight. You’re a really rude drunk, did you know that?” Jungwoo poured the rest of the contents of Jeno’s cup into his own “I hope Jaemin knows that, and doesn’t take it personally. Go sober up a little. Get some air or some shit,” Jungwoo shooed Jeno away, turning around and leaving him alone on the makeshift dance floor. Jeno closed his eyes for a second, pinching the bridge of his nose. He wasn’t drunk. He was nowhere _near_ drunk, but he also wasn’t about to explain to Jungwoo why he acted the way he did to Jaemin. Jeno first had to explain it to himself. But he couldn’t help feeling worse by the second, mood souring completely, and quickly scanned Doyoung’s apartment one more time to figure out where he could go to first stay out of Jaemin’s way and second to calm himself the fuck down. Jeno was headed to the veranda when he caught a glance of his own shirt and instead made a sharp turn towards the corridor.

He didn’t even stop to think about the implications of Doyoung’s studio door being unlocked when he slammed it shut behind him. What was that now? He was mad at his own best friend too? For what? Jeno kicked the stool from under Doyoung’s piano and plopped down, face resting in his hands. 

This was stupid. It was all so, so stupid. He’d known Jaemin for what? A week now? Jeno wasn’t nearly prepared to dissect the topic of just why it had felt so much longer than that. It was just a very, very mild crush, even if Jeno’s lungs seemed to run out of air from that internal confirmation. After all, that wasn’t Jeno’s first crush, and surely was not going to be his last, even if that was the first boy he wanted to kiss and the first laugh that rendered him breathless and the first voice he starved for. A mild crush. 

Not that any of it mattered, not with Jaemin wanting to be with someone else. Because Jeno _liked_ Jaemin, and so he wouldn’t be an asshole about it, and would support his new friend with whoever he wanted to be. He didn’t own Jaemin and had a total of zero control over Jaemin’s emotions, and if Jeno caught feelings that wouldn’t be reciprocated, well, Jeno brought that upon himself, and there was no one else so blame. His blood still ran cold when he thought about Jaemin with somebody, anybody else, and so he took a deep breath, leaned back on the piano and stared at the cushioned ceiling. 

Jeno didn’t notice how dark it actually was inside the room until bright light was pouring in from the open door, a silhouette blocking part of it. Jeno sat himself back up properly as the person closed the door again, his eyes readjusting to the darkness. 

“Hey Jen?” And that was Renjun’s voice, and so that was Renjun sitting on the low couch by the door, perfectly across from Jeno. But he didn’t respond, and Renjun said nothing else, so both sat in a very uncomfortable silence for a few moments, eyes adjusted enough to the darkness to notice they were actually staring at each other. Renjun huffed and looked down, a half smile. “Did’ya know here is like a hundred degrees better than out there?” Renjun awkwardly pointed towards the studio door, putting both hands between his knees after a moment when Jeno didn’t answer again. He only looked out of the tiny window of Doyoung’s studio, and wondered if he was really about to fight with a friend that had, literally, nothing to do with his own inner turmoil. So Jeno looked back to Renjun, who was still looking down, but now biting his lip. 

“Yeah. Doyoung’s really particular about keeping his instruments at a certain temperature,” Renjun quickly raised his eyes “I think all those people crammed into one place can’t help either,” pursing his lips, Renjun slowly nodded, but this time he was the one who didn’t offer anything else, so Jeno went back to looking out of the window and wondering just where the heck that conversation was going — or why it had even started, to begin with. Despite all of Renjun’s whines and complaints, he wasn’t actually that much of an introvert, and had long graduated from staying glued to either Jeno or Donghyuck at parties. He couldn’t possibly be there for feeling uncomfortable by himself and needing Jeno as an anchor anymore. The thing was that if Renjun had confidently walked into Doyoung’s studio, and seemed to not have done it by mistake, that also meant that he had been following Jeno with a purpose. As if Jeno needed more things to get antsy about. 

“Did you and Jaemin fight?”

Oh. 

Jeno’s head whipped back to Renjun, not enough time to school his expression into anything that resembled confusion, because out of all topics, he certainly wasn’t expecting _that_. Renjun still sat quietly, calculating face as if analyzing Jeno’s answer — or lack of. He couldn’t see whatever Renjun was seeing on his face at that moment, but from his friend’s brief nod of acknowledgement, he could imagine. 

“He just was, how do I say this,” Renjun leaned back, arms over the backrest “an ass. Uncharacteristically, I mean. Not that I’ve known the guy for long enough to say this, but he didn’t seem like the type to curse at people and tell them to ‘fuck off’ out of nowhere. Not sober, I think.”

“And what’s that got to do with me?” His friend sat very still, and Jeno suddenly felt more nervous than annoyed for having to talk about Jaemin at that moment. He didn’t know how to read Renjun’s face like that, and didn’t like how it looked like Renjun, in turn, could read his. He had _just_ had a major revelation about his own feelings, for crying out loud, it wasn’t time yet for anybody else to catch up on it. Not then, really, and not ever, if Jeno had anything to say about that. Renjun still raised an eyebrow in response as if he could hear Jeno’s entire inner monologue. 

“Just trying my luck, I guess. Jungwoo told me to take care of my ‘fucking rude friend before he ruins the party’ but when I asked if Jaemin had also been an ass to him, he told me that no, it was ‘the other J’,” he shrugged, breaking eye contact with Jeno.

“Yeah? Why would I have anything to do with _his_ temper, still?” Jeno didn’t want to think about how out of that entire sentence, he didn’t dwell on the fact that Jungwoo had called him ‘fucking rude’ or that he’d insinuated Jeno would ruin his party, but instead latched onto the fact that Renjun was somehow equating his bad mood to Jaemin’s. 

Renjun sighed. “Jeno, the last time we’ve seen both of you was half an hour ago, downstairs. And now that we talk to you guys, you’re coincidently both in shitty moods after barely interacting with anyone else?” Renjun waved his hands, stopping whatever Jeno was preparing to say “No, don’t give me that look, Jungwoo said he was the only other person who talked to you since you walked through the front door,” he tilted his head, as if genuinely concerned “What happened? I’m not saying that because Yangyang won’t give us a ride back if you and Jaemin fought, but I’m saying that Yangyang won’t give us a ride if you and Jaemin fought. And I can’t Uber this month anymore.”

Jeno clicked his tongue, elbows resting on his knees. “Why would you even assume that I’m in a bad mood,” to which Renjun simply stared back.

“Jen, buddy, you’re sitting alone in the dark in a temperature controlled room full of covered instruments inside an apartment where a full party is going on with free food and free drinks,” Renjun huffed “Like, I get it, the food is shit and the drinks are worse, but whoever is in charge of the music is actually doing a decent job. This place is also packed with people from our year, not only seniors, but I mean, not that it would matter, because you’re usually really easygoing with both. So you tell me why I think you’re moping.”

“I’m not— it’s not—” Jeno breathed in “Listen, it’s not moping. Jungwoo told me to sober up, and that’s what I’m doing.”

“Except you’re not drunk at all.”

Both stared at each other for a long moment. Jeno, ready to counter that, and Renjun, ready to call his bullshit. Jeno had forgotten that yeah, he could fool Jungwoo into believing his odd behavior was to blame on the alcohol, and that yeah, he could fool _himself_ into believing his bad mood also had to do with the one single cup he drank some twenty minutes prior. He couldn’t fool one of his best friends, though. Not as easily as he would’ve liked to. So Jeno gave up.

“What do you want?”

Renjun wrinkled his nose. “Sheesh, didn’t know it was that bad,” he clicked his tongue “I’ll have you know I got myself into some pretty awkward places trying to find my moping best friend so he could use some company, but that’s okay, I wasn’t expecting to be thanked anyway.”

“Quit sounding like Hyuck and tell me, Injun.”

Renjun sighed. “I already did. I want you to sort whatever this is out because I can’t Uber or walk home later, and Yangyang is sure as hell not gonna let the dude who fought with his best friend or the dudes who are friends of the dude who fought with his best friend into the car,” but then Renjun made eye contact with Jeno again, expression changing from nonchalant to calculating again. “I also just don’t think you really want to fight with Jaemin like this.”

 _The thing is that I didn’t fight with Jaemin at all_ , Jeno wanted to say. _This whole thing? It’s all going on in my head_ , he wanted to explain. _I have no clue about, nor anything to do with how he’s feeling right now._

“I just thought it wouldn’t make you feel good to leave him like that,” Renjun shrugged, and for a second Jeno wondered if he had actually said anything out loud. But his friend was picking lint off his jeans, and completely unaware about the thousands of things going on Jeno’s head that made him feel like the entire world was suddenly out to get him. 

“You know I didn’t fight with Jaemin.” A pause.

“Yeah.”

“Then why are you making it seem like I did?”

Renjun scowled. “I told you. It seemed logical. What else would have made both of you act up at the same time after getting separated?” He gave Jeno a sympathetic smile. “You are also kind of my best bet at improving Jaemin’s mood.”

Jeno snorted, words packed with venom. “Yeah, you could’ve gone to Hyuck for that. I’m pretty sure those two understand each other the best.”

Renjun lowered his gaze. He scratched he back of his neck and started, softly “Jeno. I know that you guys probably didn’t fight at all. What I’m saying is that we can’t be sure that _you’re_ not the reason why he’s so pissed, or that _he’s_ not the reason you’re brooding, and I think neither of you would want to go to sleep without knowing it. And _I_ would personally like to be able to sleep on my own bed in a couple of hours. And that’s only gonna happen if I have a ride,” though the last part sounded like a question. 

Though it was very poorly disguised with self interest — God knew Renjun couldn’t care less about getting a ride from Yangyang, not when over half of their class had brought their cars — Jeno could see Renjun’s point, but it scared him. It scared him because understanding Renjun’s point of view, from any possible perspective, included also understanding that one of his closest friends was fully aware of the magnitude of Jeno’s feelings towards Jaemin without him ever speaking about it, because he himself had only just barely realized it. It was one thing to not care much about socializing and thus not care about how people interpreted him to their liking, but it was a whole other thing to actively hide a piece of information that was apparently so visible to anyone who dared looking a little bit closer. It felt scary to be seen like that. 

Jeno felt tired. 

He only realized how tense he was when his shoulders dropped at the thought, a sudden wave of relief once he decided to not think too deeply about it. Jeno wasn’t made for that, wasn’t made for overanalyzing and playing social interactions like they were a game; he liked when things were black and white with only minor instances of grey. Proudly announcing he knew himself the best, and that was enough for him. He didn’t need to know someone else like he knew himself. He saw no point to it — Jeno would never get inside somebody else’s head and know exactly what they felt, what they actually meant, if they were lying, and whether they were hiding something from him, and why they were hiding it.

But ever since Jaemin, he wanted to. 

So knowingly or unknowingly — Jeno prayed that it was that first option — Renjun had hit the bullseye. No matter the uncharacteristic chaos inside his mind, he would still feel guilty to just let Jaemin’s night be ruined when he could’ve tried doing something to change it. So Jeno looked one more time out of the studio’s window that faintly reflected the colorful lights from the veranda and made up his mind. 

Renjun looked surprised to see Jeno heading to the door. “What? Aren’t you gonna tell me where he is so I can find out what’s going on?” Renjun quickly stood up and saluted Jeno military style, taking the lead out in the corridor. Feeling particularly merciful, Jeno locked the studio door from the inside and made sure it’d stay shut. Doyoung owned him a meal for that. 

It turned out that even though his friend’s apartment usually seemed big, it was nowhere near big enough when looking for a person, no matter how many cramped bodies got on the way. Jeno assumed it was mostly because he had recently talked himself into being in tune with Jaemin, but it did seem like his eyes would gravitate towards the boy whenever they were in the same room. It also wasn’t hard to spot a blond head with blue streaks on hair between their classmates. 

And so it wasn’t hard for Jeno to see Jaemin pulling Donghyuck close, and wrapping his arms around him. He heard Renjun calling Jaemin as if it was a distant sound, and not right by his ear. He heard no music and no voices, but it was almost like he could hear the exact sigh Jaemin let out just from the shape of his mouth. But then Jaemin’s expression went out of sight as he buried his face in Donghyuck’s neck, softly nuzzling it. Jeno could hear no more sounds, because it was possible that they were all being drawn out by the ones his breaking heart was making. 

“You shouldn’t have worried, Injun. Jaemin is doing just fine.”

“What are you saying,” Jeno held onto one of Renjun’s wrists, hands curved around his mouth to raise the volume of his voice, and his friend effectively stopped mid shout. Still, half a name was enough to catch the attention of the cozy looking couple, Donghyuck’s head turning and Jaemin’s head raising. Jaemin looked straight into Jeno’s eyes, despite Renjun having been the one who called him. _It’s really almost like gravity_ , Jeno bitterly thought, _I can’t believe that could actually fool me_. Jeno’s hand dropped from Renjun’s wrist and Jaemin’s glazed eyes seemed to gain sudden focus. He looked at Donghyuck, looked back to Jeno, and awkwardly let Donghyuck go, stumbling backwards. 

Jeno felt so tired. 

“Can you let them know I’m going back? I don’t feel so good,” he clasped a hand on Renjun’s shoulder, already making his way towards the front door “You can let Hyuck know I’m leaving all windows open if he needs to stop by.”

“Jeno?” But Renjun sounded worried, so Jeno lowered his head, turning whatever expression he had on slightly away. 

“I’ll see you Monday?” Jeno pushed through the crowd without waiting for an answer, eyes prickling. 

He passed through the front door without looking back a second time that evening, with a voice he begun to starve for calling his name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whenever i update this i go into a major block where i want each chapter to have around the same word count but then i start getting anxious over not having enough to talk about in the chapter so i end up adding stuff to my outline which makes it impossible to fit in one single chapter if i want to keep a certain word count and i-
> 
> anyway with that said it means that the stuff i added to my outline to make this chapter reach my expected word count was Definitely Not all covered so my chapters keep multiplying hah
> 
> as usual i’d love to know your thoughts <333 on the plot and your reactions and expectations but also on how to get over a block because i’m suffering :’)
> 
> (find me on [twt](https://twitter.com/mxtchxlatte)!)


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